The Perils of Titan Dating
by Saint H
Summary: Jericho is looking to woo Raven into being his girlfriend. But throw in the other Titans, being a superhero, and the fact that his father is Slade and her father is Trigon... and things get a little more complicated.
1. Mute Questions

_Saint H's Authors Notes:_

Set a few years after 'Things Change', this is the story of Joey (Jericho) and his relationship with the mysterious Raven. Just FYI, in addition to being older all the Titans live in the one original Tower in this fic. Enjoy, or else.

_**Chapter One: Mute Questions**_

A stirring.

A shuffling of sheets.

An amber skinned face with a fiery silk-like mane rolled on a lavender pillow.

A soft sigh, "K'uttchu negal…"

A peaceful girl sleeping in her pink and purple room, curtains spread open and white/gray light shining dully bright thru to her room.

Her shining green eyes fluttered open.

She sat up and looked out her window at the snow falling on the winter-struck city.

"I do love Christmas." Kory mused with a sleepy smile.

**_H_**

A handsome blonde headed young man walked down a long corridor in the tower. A slightly shaggy yet very well kept haircut bounced up and down as the young man stepped with the beat of the song blaring from his headphones.

He mutely mouthed along with the deep and intense voice that sang with a bass-laden rock background that woke the usually docile blonde Titan up quite nicely on this calm December morning.

_"HATE THE PARASITE I LOVED! (Now I burn this False Paradise!)  
'SEARING ANGER COME UNPLUGGED! (Along with my Parasite!)'_

The mute teen smiled and ran a hand thru is blonde crown, down his golden-sideburn cheek to his cleanly shaven chin. He lowered his hand down to a faded scar on his throat and rubbed it lightly, making the small soreness in his throat ease.

The peculiar voyage by the Titan clad in a white wife beater and gray sweatpants (a chance for fan girl's who planted spy camera's to drool over his bare arms and shoulders) ended as he came to a door that opened with a soft _whir_.

Jericho entered the Main Room of Titans Tower.

He continued to mutely scream the chorus,

_"Her heart we broke, Our souls still stained, Her spirit we've quoke, No longer our tears of pain!"_

"Yo, Joey, howzit hangin'!" Cyborg's voice penetrated the blaring music of TurnCoat.

The young man turn off his CD player and set it down, he then hand-signed, _'A little to the left, what is up Vic?'_

"I stayed up all night watching Clerks, I swear Kevin Smith is a theatrical genius!"

Joey chuckled mutely, giving a thumbs up of agreement.

"Like anyone who created someones as filthy as Jay and Silent Bob could ever be considered a genius… or theatrical for that matter." Raven muttered sarcastically from the couch, reading a book and sipping her tea.

Joey glanced over at the blue girl and smiled warmly at the back of her head from the kitchen.

"Y'know Rae, I do not believe we asked you!" Cyborg said with mock bitchy-ness.

Raven just sat there.

Joey just grinned at the back of her head all the more warmly.

Cyborg sat there, conveniently oblivious.

Raven's voice filled the quiet room, "…Good morning to you too, Jericho."

The tow-head waved mutely, a drunken grin plastered on his face.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow, "Riiight, so Joey, barring the unforeseen plot device that would probably consist of either bank robbers, gang bangers, extra-dimensional demons, crazy-ass psychotic Super Villains, crazy-ass psychotic Fan Girls, a deadly government conspiracy, the Rapture, or a one-eyed pedophile, whaddya doing today?"

Joey whispered sweet mute nothings across the room to the back of Raven's blue head.

Cyborg sighed, defeated, "I can't contend with hormones, I think I'll go find Beast Boy, see what he's up to." And with that, Cyborg up and left, "You two have a good time."

The door opened,

_Whir_

The door closed,

_Whir_

…

Silence.

…

Jericho watched Raven.

…

Raven sat still.

…

Jericho thought he saw Raven's head move slightly to the left, but then decided it had just been his imagination.

…

Raven turned a page quietly.

Jericho emphatically cheered her on with his mute screams, _'Fucking A-Right! You show that page who's boss you Sexy Blue Lady! That page was all, 'I ain't moving bitch!' But then you was all like, "Yes you are, byzatch!" And the page was all, 'Nu Uh bizzle!' And you was all like, 'Uh HUH, bionka!' And the page was all like, 'DAYAMN GIRL, NO YOU DI'NT!' And then you, like, turned the page! DAMN you rock!…'_

Unbeknownst to our mute friend, Raven watched his reflection on the window's of the Tower, and read his lips well.

A small smirk crossed Raven's face.

_**H**_

Cyborg ambled down the hallways. Eventually he walked into the top level, the one below the roof. It was a highly vacant room with lots of free space. It was humongous with no walls and, during the day, was lighted by the windows that encircled the level completely. There were several things up here, the most prominent of which was the leviathan of a swimming pool the Titans often made good use of.

The second most prominent thing was the amazing sound system, which Beast Boy was currently using to play his Sublime CD while reading a book entitled _'101 Ways to Get People to Stop Writing Crappy FanFiction About You!'_

"Yo dawg, I didn't know you could read!" Cyborg shouted over the music.

Beast Boy looked up and paused the music, "Ha ha ha! Your so funny!" the changeling mocked, "So, whats up bro?"

"Well, Joey and Raven are having one of their sexually intense awkward silence moments." the bionic being explained.

"Oh, I see. But damn I love those, you know I have 'Raven and Jericho: Sexually Awkward' season's 1 thru 3 on DVD, right?" the green one joked.

Cyborg chuckled, "Hah, dawg, you doing anything today besides running your mouth?"

"Naw, why, you got something planed?"

"I was figuring, if this day doesn't call upon us to do our super heroic duties, maybe we could go down to Jim's and browse around." the older Titan offered his younger friend.

"Sure thing bro."

"Awesome, lets head out."

And the two friends began to walk for the elevator that would take them to the garage.

…

…

"Y'know, once we're there, maybe we'll find some self-help book for Raven and Joey along the lines of _'How to Admit You Want to Copulate All Night, Every Night: For Dummies!'_

"HAHAHA! Dawg, shut yo damn mouth! Hah, jeez."

_**H**_

Robin, Killowat, and Kid Flash were all standing silently just outside the Main Room, watching the two Titans with great amusement.

"What's he saying? Robin, what's Joey saying man?" Killowat whisperingly asked.

"I'm sure its something along the lines of, 'What light on yonder window breaks, tis thy perfectly round bum, and the sun doth blush at the sight of it!' or something else poetic like that." Kid Flash added.

"Be quiet guys!" Robin hissed under his breath, "I'm trying to read what Jericho's saying."

Joey glanced across the couch at Raven, he waved his hand to get her attention.

She looked up from her book, "What it is, Jericho?"

The mute Titans inwardly winced from her cold use of his alias. But, not losing a beat, he hand-signed, _'Morning, Raven. How are you?'_

"Annoyed that I'm being interrupted from my book, you?" she answered, voice as chilly as the winter dawn outside.

This time he visibly winced, but pressed on, _'I am fine. You know Raven, since it's such a snowy and icy day, the villains aren't likely to do anything today.'_

"Is there a point to this interlude to my reading or am I meaninglessly being withheld from finding out if Terminus is destroyed by the Empire?" the Ice Queen enunciated.

Back over, the boys were still listening with great interest.

"Ouch! That has to hurt!" Kid Flash snickered.

"Like you could do any better." Killowat murmured.

"Sure I could, if I wanted to." the speedster boasted.

"Heh, right, Kid Flash/Raven, like that would ever happen."

"Shhh!" Robin silenced the other two as he continued to watch the conversation.

The blonde boy began to sweat, but was not deterred from his route. He and Raven had almost always shared a friendly relationship. Which with Raven is out of the regular. But whenever he attempt to pull something of this sort he was immediately and coldly shut down by Raven, but this time he wasn't going to be stopped from asking the question. He firmly but quickly hand-signed.

_'Would you like to go out on the town later today Raven?'_

The mystic girl gave him a deadpan look.

Robin and the boys looked on with baited breath.

Joey held his breath.

"Oooh, this is so excitingly enthralling, is it not Robin?" Starfire whispered to the boy wonder right beside her.

Robin, Kid Flash, and Killowat nearly jumped out of their skin. Robin whispered back, "Star! When did you get here?"

"Just now, and I can see the situation before us may hold romantic possibilities for our two friends! Now please be silent so I may observe without interruption."

Robin gave her a look, "But you were the one who snuck up on us-"

"Shhh!" she silenced the Titans leader. Robin obeyed.

Raven gave him a questioning look.

Joey gave a carefree grin, hoping for the best and pleased he had finally asked the question.

Time passed and the tension was such that you could cut thru it with a limp, wet noodle.

A small smile formed on the edge of Raven's mouth, "OK, Joey, that sounds… fun."

Joey would have jumped for joy, making himself look the fool in front of Raven, I say would have because the observers beat him to it.

"Oh shit that didn't just happen!" Killowat laughed.

"Wow, the Ice Queen just let down her walls. I knew you were a ladies man Joey but, damn. That's just impressive!" Kid Flash hollered.

"Happiness Omega! May this occasion blossom into a fruitful relationship between you two!" Starfire jubilated.

Robin stood up slowly, the only one not to overreact, and gave a sheepish smile and a thumbs up.

Jericho looked on, horrified.

Raven's eyes narrowed, she lifted up her hood and stormed cold out of the room.

The observers had been silenced.

A few quiet seconds passed.

…

…

…

…

"Heh, oops, sorry J." Kid Flash meeped apologetically.

Causing quite a large amount of noise, especially for a mute, Joey got up and stormed up to the unwanted audience. He was so angry he momentarily forgot he couldn't speak. So after attempting to scream he made due with a mean look and a rude gesture, and then he stormed out of the room as well.

The four stood in silence.

…

…

"So, what's for breakfast?" Kid Flash asked.

The other three shot him incredulous looks.

"What?"

Starfire smacked him.


	2. Voiceless Pleading

_**Chapter Two: Voiceless Pleading**_

"OOOOH!"

"Life is too short so love the one you got!"

"Cuz ya might get run over or ya might get, **shot**!"

Cyborg and Beast Boy grinned and chuckled a little after singing along with the song. They had just left the Mickey D's drivethru, Beast Boy got a salad. Cyborg some chicken strips.

"Y'know, if you get any of that salad dressing on my seats, I'm gonna kill yo green ass."

"Yea, just shut your trap and lets get to Jim's, I heard they got a new load of those funny t-shirts with sayings on them." the green one continued, "I just love those."

"Really? Cause I find them to be tacky."

"Yea, that's cuz your black."

"What'cho just say boy!" the bionic teen screamed in mock-rage.

The changeling played along, "Oh no! I, the child with green skin, have referred to the color of your skin in a jesting manner! I am surely not only going to hell but also deserve to be butt raped by a large inmate named Sally!"

"Hahaha! Dawg, you gotta stop, I can't breath and I'm trying to drive." Cyborg wheezed.

Beast Boy smiled and ate his salad as the two friends cruised on, nodding their heads to the beat of the song.

**_H_**

Bushido stood strong at the edge of the Tower's roof. Clad in nothing but tight, black pajama pants and a black beater, he walked around the edge of the roof, performing complicated martial arts meditation techniques, with his eyes closed.

The bone freezing cold of the winter morning, the fast rush of chilling wind, the occasional flock of birds late to migrate flying nearby, all of these things made this impossible feat even more impossible. It required every bit of the asian hero's concentration, and he loved it.

He smirked to himself and sighed contentedly as he took a step away from the edge and reached up to undo his blindfold.

"Quiero pollo!" came a cry from behind the Titan, making him lose his balance and all but fall over the side of the Tower.

After regaining his balance, Bushido glowered over his shoulder at the source of the voice.

"Lo que el jode hace eso tiene que hacer con algo?" Menos asked his brother, Mas, both completely oblivious of Bushido.

"Nada, pero los lectores muy probable no entienden español tan es fino decirlo."

Bushido tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the twin speedsters to take notice of their interruption of his meditation.

"Oye! Usted tiene razón a hermano. ¡Los lectores insensatos creen que decimos algo de importancia!"

"Grande vaginas flexibles!"

"Ahora que era apenas de pésimo gusto."

"Usted tiene razón, yo me avergüenzo."

Bushido's glower exploded into full-blown glare of death; still the pair remained unconscious towards their intrusion.

"Hace el robot!"

Both twins proceeded to do the robot.

Bushido's jaw dropped in sheer confusion.

"Bien, eso era divertido, la paz fuera!" Mas ended with finality as they both scrambled back down to the Tower without paying Bushido any heed whatsoever.

The martial artist sighed and turned back around, gazing out at the Bay and the snow covered city. It started to snow lightly. Bushido smiled contentedly…

"Ninja chupa!" Menos yelled at the lone Titan on the roof. Bushido turned with a mischievous smirk and chased his teammate down into the Tower.

_**H**_

Raven walked briskly down the corridors of the Tower to her room. The hallways were mysteriously left a good 20 degrees colder in her wake. Beneath the hood was a furious face, a furrowed brow, explodingly angry eyes, and perhaps even slightly blushing cheeks.

Swiftly catching up to the mystic Titan was our golden crowned hero. His eyes brightened as he spotted her. Joey hand signed in furious apology and explanation at Raven's retreating form.

While Raven could not see him, as an empath she could definitely sense his emotions. She responded as such, "I can siphon and purify my father's demonic power in order to send him wounded out of this dimension, but I don't have eyes in the back of my head, I can't read you."

"…" Jericho responded. He ran up beside her and hand signed again.

She stopped walking.

Joey stopped with her.

…

Joey was starting to wonder if it was colder outside or right here by Raven. His body wanted to shiver but he restrained.

He hand signed again, but was cut off by Raven, "Joey, I think we've talked enough for today." And with that she began to sink into a portal in the floor undoubtedly leading to her room.

Jericho looked on sadly, then he set his face.

… and reached down and grabbed Raven's hand.

The dark girl stopped mid-transportation.

She looked down at his hand on hers.

She looked up with tired, but considerably softer, eyes and sighed, lowering her hood. Joey wasn't sure if it was a sigh of annoyance, relief, or something else entirely.

She looked at him with those softer eyes, and Joey (being an expert with eyes) thought he could see some apprehension in her blue irises. Her now un-hooded head revealed her hair to be disheveled and slightly strewn about as if from stressed, and it gave her an earthy, almost mousy look.

"You've got five minutes." She said, coming out of the floor and hugging her small self, shivering as if she just now felt her own cold aura.

Joey grinned warmly at the robed girl and proceeded to hand sign to Raven…

**_H_**

Later that day, around one o clock, Robin and Starfire were sitting on the couch, watching TV while the other Titans were about the Tower or on the town. Usual whenever there was no crime.

But this didn't stop Starfire from using it as a topic of discussion; she was in the middle of playfully asking Robin the location of their teammates.

"And Argent?"

"She's with Jinx and Pantha, at the mall I'd imagine." He answered off the cuff as he switched from the 'Home Shopping Network' to the 'Bass Fishing Extreme Station.'

She grinned mischievously, "Very well, Bushido?"

Robin opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it.

"Y'know, Star, I'm not really sure."

The fiery beauty looked mildly shocked, "Truly?"

"Yea, Kori, no clue." He said, looking at her and grinning.

Kori looked back. They both gazed dumbly at each other's faces for a moment.

The alien girl reached up and smoothly slipped off Robin's eyemask, and she was rewarded with Tim Drake's blue eyes meeting her green ones.

Tim quickly responded by pressing his lips on hers as they shared breath and did the tongue tango for half a minute.

…

Mas and Menos blurred away quickly in the background.

…

Bushido jogged along. He stopped, sweating, for a breath before pursuing his prey further.

…

The two parted lip lock, finally needing some air.

"Well, I might need to get questions wrong more often." The boy wonder smirked, his face close to hers.

Kori grinned pleasantly, "Indeed."

They scooted closer and held each other, kissing.

After a few more minutes of sucking face, the Tamaranean pulled away. Tim gave her a look that's message was clear, 'Huh?'

"Oh Timothy," she began, putting her head against his chest, "I do so enjoy these moments. If only more people understood this feeling we share, perhaps there would be no need for us and our friends to fight crime."

"Maybe Kori. But think of it this way, if it weren't for crime fighting, you and I might not have met."

"Hmmm… I suppose that's true. Hehe, a most peculiar way to meet your significant other."

"Not as peculiar as you'd think. Just look at Wally and Jean, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Gar and Tara, well, Ok Gar and Tara isn't a prime example. But…"

"Joseph and Raven?" Kori sighed happily, then her face saddened slightly, "Oh, they would make such a good couple, but I fear we may have ruined that when we dropped our eaves upon them this morning."

Tim grinned, "Actually, I saw the two of them heading out a half an hour ago, in casual clothes even."

Kori nearly imploded with joy, "Truly you did! Glorious! Oh, I do so verily and emphatically wish that our good friends blossom into soul mates for they are nearly perfect for each other. Oh and think how adorable they would look in photographs and..."

Tim grinned and shook his head, listening to her sweet voice talk about whatever its owner felt like thinking, as he always had.

**_H_**

"Here we are, BB, Jim's Warehouse."

And indeed that's where our two friends were.

Jim's Warehouse was a small outlet store, well, used to be a small outlet store. It has, since it's opening, become so popular that it has grown in size and stock vastly. So popular with the city's youth that it is an unofficial tourist attraction.

Jim's sold all kinds of music, movies, novelty items; all ranging the gambit from K to X rated. They had recently added a tattooing service that was proving to be a large success. All in all if you wanted to buy something interesting, you needed to go to Jim's.

Cyborg liked the store for it's musical selection, for he wide and varying tastes.

Beast Boy liked the store because if you bought three fake dog turds you got one free, also they had the best price on edible lingerie in town.

So, after a few minutes of browsing the store, they met up again. Beast Boy had several prank-props for his personal enjoyment, and Cyborg had a small stack of CDs.

"So, Cy, you'll never guess what I found!" the green one asked excited.

"What?"

"Guess!"

Cyborg grumbled, "I dunno… a 14 year old incarnation of a hellgod?"

Beast Boy gave him a 'What the hell?' look, "No dude! Check it out!" he said, triumphantly holding up a yellow book.

Cyborg read the title outloud, "_'How to Admit You Want to Copulate All Night, Every Night: For Dummies!'_"

It took the usually bright mechanical man a moment to realize what he had just read, once he did he proceeded to laugh his bolts off.

"Ahahaa, are you seriously getting that BB?"

"Hells ya man! It's too good to pass up!"

On their way to the purchase counter, Beast Boy spotted something, and dashed towards it.

His friend eyed him and groaned once he saw the wares his changeling friend was inspecting.

T-shirts with sayings on the front.

"HAHAHA! CY! CHECK THIS ONE OUT!" he said, holding up a shirt that had a picture of President Bush and an arrow pointing to him. Above the arrow were the words 'I'm with Satan.'

"Hahaha," the green boy giggled, "Or this one!" He held up a shirt that said 'Ima Superhero, now screw me!'

"Or this!" Cyborg said, holding up a shirt that said 'Everytime Chuck Norris does a push up, the world goes down.'

"No way man! Chuck Norris is a poser compared to the original!" the green one said, holding up a shirt with Mr. T on the front that said 'I pity the fool that don't laugh at this t-shirt!'

"Or… maybe this one." Cyborg grinned slyly as he held up shirt that said 'Sayings on T-shirts **SUCK!**'

"Heeey, not cool man!" Beast Boy whined.

His semi-bionic friend chucked at the changeling's dismay, but stopped after spotting a sign. He pointed with horror.

"What is it Cy- Ooooh…" Beast Boy followed the finger to a sign that read…

… Teen Titans Parody Tees.

The two scrambled over to see what the shirts said.

One had a picture of Starfire with the words 'I have orange boobs.'

Another had Beast Boy saying 'I really AM hung like a horse.'

"It's true you know."

"Shut up, B."

The next shirt had a picture of Robin in a battle stance, twirling his bo staff with the words 'Would you like to touch my pole?' sprawled underneath it.

"That's just in bad taste."

"Pull the extension cord outta your ass and laugh a little Cy." Beast Boy giggled, inspecting another shirt. But his jovial demeanor quickly evanesced. He dropped the shirt and all the items he was about to by and sprinted out of the store.

Cyborg looked after his friend, shock written on his face. He then glanced down at the shirt that had caused Beast Boy to go haywire.

The shirt had a picture of Terra, and the words 'Certifiably Insane.'

Cyborg's brow furrowed and his face frowned hard.

The people who were watching with shock at Beast Boy's sprinting departure were now watching with fear at the furious Cyborg. He turned around and eyed the clerk at the check out counter.

With a slow stride that echoed around the silent store with a –_stomp, stomp, stomp_- he reached the counter, put down his CDs, and hissed with a voice full of malice, "I don't think we'll be coming here again."

With that he walked towards the door, the store still silent except for the sound of his heavy footsteps.

He opened the door.

_Ching_

He closed the door… quite forcefully.

_**SMASH!**_

With the door off its hinges and the front windows shattered, the stores occupants watched in awe as the T-Car drove out of the parking lot and towards the nearest city street.


	3. A Low Volume Serenade

**_Chapter Three: Low Volume Serenade_**

Blue eyes, bored, calm, and gazing lackadaisically at the scenic white city thru the questionably cleaned windows of a dimly lit café; these were what our Casanova-wannabe-of-a-hero was currently glancing at.

Raven was dressed simply in snug blue jeans that hugged her curves, a black sweater, waistcoat, and scarf.

Joey was in blue jeans with a white long sleeved shirt and a black denim jacket over it.

The two off duty Titans had made an odd entrance a few minutes ago, the quiet, placid crowd had all given Raven an air of respect and recognition. Quite the feet considering they kept emotion, and motion itself for that matter, to an absolute minimum here Joey noticed.

While they had given Raven what could be considered a friendly welcome, they had not been so kind to Jericho, a newcomer in their midst. Perhaps it was his lack of piercings, tattoos or black eyeliner. Or maybe it was his sunny disposition or the fact that he was apparently the soul being in the café with the ability to smile, or indeed show any facial expression besides that of a deadpan or a perpetual grimace.

Needless to say, the tow-head felt… awkward.

One thing he did have in common was silence. Although he did not have a choice in the matter of speaking it was obvious that these people were in love with a constant and well kept lack of noise. The only exceptions were the soft clinking of plates and tea cups and the soft, neutral or negative voice belonging to whichever youth was on stage reciting a poem. Some of theses poems were self-written; some written by others, all of them were dark, and some were even accompanied by an old acoustic guitar up on stage for use by the poetic patrons.

Joey had no problem believing that Raven liked to spend time here.

Joey also had no problem believing that he was going to have to work hard to get any good times squeezed into this date. Not that he couldn't respect poetry, in fact the fair Titan was a decent musician in his own right, its just that he wanted to take Raven someplace were they could bond in a… warmer and closer atmosphere. In order to make the day memorable, and perhaps make him synonymous with a little happiness to her, and maybe to melt a layer or two off the infamous Ice Queen of the Titans, he was going to have to get some interest flowing between them lest this outing fizzle out into a waste of space.

"Your order." Came a whisper so low Joey almost didn't hear it. A thin, pale man set down a cup of green tea in front of Raven and a small glass of water in front of our hero.

"Enjoy." He whispered, again barely audible. Joey watched as the pale man walked back to the kitchen, and took notice of the way he… sashayed?

Joey did a slight double take and mentally questioned which way the man swung.

That line of thought was swiftly and totally abolished as Raven spoke, very softly, to him, "You don't like it here, do you?" her face and nose scrunched slightly as she asked.

Joey's hazel eyes went momentarily wide like a deer caught in the headlights, but he recovered quickly hand signing, _'No! No! This is a very nice place. Quiet, calm, …morbid.'_

She raised a brow at the last part, "What did you say?"

'_I have not said anything since I was five, Raven.' _ he smirked.

She rolled her blue eyes, "Don't give me that Joey."

_'But you are so cute when you are exasperated.'_ She raised another brow and gave him a blank look. … Joey tried to fight off the urge to shift in his seat from unease. … Raven continued to stare blankly. … The cafés other patrons sat, oblivious. 

…

Joey lost his fight and shifted slightly in the uncomfortable gothic style chair.

Raven then spoke as if she had been waiting for him to do that, "You don't have to be here if you don't want to." And she turned her head dismissively towards the stage, watching a boy recite Edgar Allen Poe thru the mic.

Jericho could sense the apathy (and was that, disappointment?) in her voice, as if she didn't want to bother him with her habits and was annoyed that he was trying to act as if he was enjoying it.

He reached across the small table, past both their untouched drinks, and held the petite hand that was not propping her chin up.

The hand was cold.

Joey frowned at that. When he looked back up Raven was staring at him as if a goat's ass was duck taped to his forehead.

The blonde paid no heed, and stared with his hazel optics into her blue ones…

… and activated his super power, just slightly, and contact was made.

Their dual existences were now partially linked, adding that with the mystic girl's empathy allowed for a very fluent trade of emotions between the staring, silent pair.

Raven's turn to be the deer in the headlights.

He took his warm palm off her hand, and she slightly fidgeted as if now uncomfortable, but she was soon consoled by what he had to say.

_'Raven, I may not be big into gothic cafés. But I'm not being tortured or anything, its not that bad here, even considering the possibly bisexual waiters. Besides, I said I wanted to spend the day with you, and that's exactly what I'm doing. So as far as I'm concerned, this is a hella good time.'_

…

Joey wasn't quite sure she ever even read what he hand signed to her, but he knew for sure that she felt it.

She leaned across the small, small table, grasped his large hands with her small ones, closed her eyes and slowly leaned in for a kiss.

Joey closed his eyes and prepared to receive it when-

_cl-clink, SHATTER!_

Raven, in her leaning, accidentally pushed the small table slightly, causing Joey's glass of water to fall onto his lap, not only breaking the glass but soaking the crotch of his jeans.

Raven pulled back, blushing and shocked.

Joey stared down at his now wet groin with a raised brow.

The teenage gothics turned to see what had disturbed their sacred sounds of silence.

Raven grabbed the blonde boy's hand and stood up, "I think it's time to leave," and pulled Jericho with her as she marched out of the café.

**_H_**

Speedy and Aqualad, dressed casual and to be called by their real names, Roy and Garth, were prowling a rare day-time party. The pair was followed closely by a few of the newer Titans, also in off duty attire. These followers consisted of Kid Flash (Wally), Herald (Mal), and Hot Spot (Isaiah).

"So, when do the chicks come and force themselves on us?" Mal said cockily.

Wally and Isaiah laughed with the horn-freak and they all pounded fists.

The red headed archer glance over his shoulder with light blue, unmasked eyes and growled, "Tch, man, could you be any more of a virgin?"

Mal quieted down.

"D-dude. You're a virgin? After all that talk! HAHAHA!" Wally cracked up.

Girls nearby looked on and giggled, guys laughed and shook their heads.

Mal about died from embarrassment.

Wally continued, "Ah, its Ok Mr.Igetnopussy. We understand. Or at least we would if we were virgins too! HAH!"

Roy and Garth turned around, saw the danger, and grabbed their lackeys and quickly drug them to an unseen corner of the party.

"What do you think you're doing?" Roy roared.

"I was making fun of Lil' Mally over here." Wally said, drunken in the fever of humor.

Garth bitch slapped him across his face, "Fool! Being a dumbass doesn't impress chicks." The Atlantean sighed.

Wally brought a hand to his cheek, "Dude, did you just bitch slap me?"

Neither of the senior Titans paid attention to the fastest teen alive.

"Ok, ya see over there?" Garth said, pointing to an uninhabited section of bar.

"Yea…" Isaiah, Wally, and Mal said.

"Well, we're going to stand over there, posing but at the same time looking casual." Garth explained.

"How do we do that-" Isaiah started, but was cut off by Roy's foot in his crotch.

"Fool! Don't ask how, just do it." Roy growled.

"OK, now that you all know that there is only one more thing you need to know." Garth said and leaned in close to the lackeys.

The lackeys leaned close to Garth as he whispered, "When we get over there and start our pose/non-pose… don't forget to look like you're gay."

The party raged in the background as the ground shared an awkward moment of technicolor silence.

"WHAT!" Mal screamed.

"THE!" Isaiah continued.

"HELL!" Wally finished up.

Roy grinned at their reaction, "Heh, cute."

"No, seriously guys! Acting gay but not being gay is about the sexiest thing that a guy can do! It'll get all the chicks to notice you."

"R-really?" Isaiah asked.

"Really." Roy and Garth said at the same time.

"Besides, how do you think all those rumors about me and gill-face here got started?" Roy said as he led them to the bar.

Once there Garth and Roy took natural poses, and the others looked like they were trying way too hard to look cool. Which they, of course, were.

Pretty soon, girls came over and started flirting with them. Roy and Garth flirted it up, Roy grunted and acted the rebel. Garth spoke fluently and acted the intellect.

The ladies giggled and swooned, spilling their estrogenical obsession all over the two.

Wally and Isaiah stood there and felt awkward. Mal made a fool of himself.

"Hey babe," Mal started to one girl, "you like animals?"

"Ya."

"Well, did you now I've got a pet with me here? He's real cute and fuzzy."

"For reals?" She giddily asked, interested. "What it is?"

He got in close and said, "It's a trouser snake."

She frowned, stepped back, and bitch slapped him.

"Wow, there sure is a lot more bitch-slappery going on here than I would have thought." Roy grunted.

"Oui, beaucoup si.." Garth mumbled.

The swooning harem of girls reacted.

_"Hahaha, oh Roy! You're so funny!"_

_"Hehehe!" _

"_Wow, speak French again Garth! Multi-lingual men are so sexy!"_

The girls all laughed and cooed, nearly smothering the two.

Pretty soon both Titans headed off in different directions with their respective harems.

Roy, being the brash guy he was, gave the lackeys the finger and strutted off with two hot girls under each arm.

Garth, similarly burdened, was kinder. The Atlantean turned his head and mouthed back to them, _'Don't forget to act gay!'_

…

…

A few of the left over girls that were lingering started to leave.

Isaiah, desperate, choked and piped up, "I LOVE BOYS!"

Mal gave him a horrified look and Wally put his face in his hands.

The remaining girls left to different and more interesting realms of the party.

**_H_**

Roy strutted masculinely towards the bay outside the party, mysteriously lacking a harem.

His light blue eyes looked out on the sparkling bay reflecting the late sky. The sun was drawing closer to the horizon and the corners of the sky were starting to turn purple.

… and strong, muscular arms pulled the archer backwards onto a firm chest.

"Hey, Baby." said an Atlantean, also lacking the hordes of women, as he bent his neck down and kissed the archer.

The archer returned the favor.

Just as Mal was leaving the party, quite bummed out because he had no lady-skills, he turned and saw the two, very male, Titans sharing a very… intense moment.

Shocked by the discovery and nervous with realization, Mal did what anybody with the responsibility, will power, and grace required to be a superhero would have done, "OMIGOD! YOU GUYS REALLY ARE GAY! ... W-wait... THAT'S WHAT THE STAIN IN THE BACKSEAT OF MY CAR IS?.!"


	4. Colors of Silence

**_Chapter Four: Colors of Silence_**

Beast Boy sat with such silence as to outdo Jericho. He seemed heavy and cold, weighed down by an invisible cumbersome blue aura of such mass and frigidity that it was fit to drive the poor green teen insane. But he sat quietly, and showed no emotion….

… at all.

Cyborg observed his friend with a long sideward glance. The bionic being's face fell, the sight of such depression in the possession of the perpetually jocular Beast Boy was too much for him to bear.

"Yo, B man! Just forget that dumbass shit-shirt! Y'know those guys just do it for money! They're leaches, just forget about it B, it's not worth your time." The large teen ranted.

"But she is…"

Cyborg fell silent at the wheel. The blue of the car's interior sunk in and the clear horizon of the deep blue sky met the window and only two things existed into becoming one… a deep, sacred azure quite.

And the tires of the T-Car rolled on in a hypnotic hum.

"Beast Boy I-" the changeling remained painfully stoic.

"Garfield, brother… talk to me man. We fought death, destruction, demons, one-eyed pedophiles, and everything else under the sun together. And if we can't talk about a fucking T-shirt, then we might be in some trouble." Victor said loud enough, but with a warm tint layered on his deep voice.

The mixture of the sincerity, seriousness, and humor in Victor's words were reminiscent of all that their friendship stood for… and the green one broke open.

"It's just that… ever since she decided to have her little 'amnesia' episode, I've been… been." His eyes wandered and shook, "God. I don't even know what I'm saying. It's just like, its worse than before. Then she was alive but dead, now she's dead but alive! She's in front of me in my dreams and I know she's out there. Hell, I could even find her if I wanted to Vic. I could see her, touch her, smell her again." He said, breaking his cold blue silence.

Vic smiled, "Well Gar, I don't know about all that touching business." He lightly mocked, a friendly warm smile on his face.

A small, weak, but honest smile drew itself on a somber green face, the changeling's eyes unfocused and grew round, "Yea, heh."

The hum of the tires accompanied by the tired, warm womb of gray silence forged by their friendship. And the tires of the T-Car rolled on.

Beast Boy's green eyes lifted and cast their dead gaze out the window of the T-Car.

They focused.

And the gray silence was broken and the warm womb pierced by Garfield's blood curdling scream, "VIC! STOP THE CAR!"

**_H_**

Raven and Jericho were walking down a white, snow-covered street in the evening.

And Jericho's pants were still moist around the crotch area.

The pair had gone to a nearby gas station where Joey had tried to use the blower in the men's room to try and dry it, to little success and odd stares from other patrons.

They had then given up and had been walking down little traveled streets to avoid attention of the unwanted sort. And they had been talking, as they were now, about different things.

Joey's wet crotch.

The nice winter the City was having.

A funny movie Joey had seen, which turned into a full discussion of their favorite movies.

The rumors about Roy and Garth and how bogus they were.

Their favorite places to hang out in the City.

And many more subjects, up to the one they were at now…

'_... and so then the bouncer said, "Sorry buddy, we don't take coupons!"'_

Raven giggled lightly. Joey giggled breathily.

And silence engulfed the scene… cool and gray.

And the two walked on, their feet crunching the snow.

Raven looked up at the tow-head, "Y'know, Joey, I only talk this long to the other four founding Titans… and a few others." Her words lingered coldly in the air as her mind wandered in frigid nostalgia.

'_I guess I should be honored that I am have been added to the list of others.'_ He hand-signed, smirking.

The mystic girl was shaken from her reverie and couldn't hold back a smile before it played across her soft lips.

Joey saw and smiled.

Silence.

Cool.

Gray.

Constant crunchy creation of footprints in the fresh snow by the ambling pair filled the air.

"You know, Joey." Raven shattered the gray silence in an instant, "With all of the others, I never talk to them like this."

Joey gave her a weird look as if to say 'bzuh?'

She purposefully gazed elsewhere before continuing, "I mean, people have made me laugh, and Kori and I have lively talks. But this has been different. It's like, this was the best thing you had to do."

Joey raised a fair brow, _'How flattering to us both.'_

She quipped back, "You know that's not how I meant it."

_'What? I find it hard to believe that the resident bookworm of the Titans reached a lack of vocabulary to sufficiently describe something.'_

"You are such a smartass."

Joey's eyes widened in surprise at the vulgar comment from the small woman.

She looked back at his perplexed expression and giggled lightly.

"So, is that how it is Joey? Is this what you wanted to do with your free day? Follow me around like I've you on a leash?" she asked cynically.

Joey puzzled and pondered over the question, wanting to sound good in front of Raven. His hands merely worked on their own, like they knew what they were doing, _'Well Raven, what can I say? You do make me wet.'_

Blue eyes darted down to wet crotch and this time Raven laughed out loud. The first occurrence the Joey had ever heard of, let alone witnessed.

But all shock forgotten; her laugh was a lovely one, soft, smooth and warm like the skin of a lover.

For lack of a better term: Joey swooned.

Raven took notice, "Oh my word. Joey, you're swooning."

Joey quickly stopped and hand signed in his defense, _'What are you talking about? That never happened.'_

"Yes it did." Raven quipped, her voice level but playful.

_'No, I'm pretty sure that never happened. You're seeing things.'_

Not stopping the pattern of uncharacteristic charisma, Raven pouted. Only slightly, but it was enough to get the message thru.

And Joey recovered nicely like the little Romeo he is, _'Oh, come on Raven. Have I hurt you're feelings?'_

"I am not talking to you." Raven monotoned, folding her arms.

_'Awe, come on Raven. We both know you can't be mad at me. Come on, I'm way too cute for that.'_

"And vain as well."

_'You are talking to me.'_

"And you're annoying me."

It was Joey's turn to act hurt.

'_Why, madam! I am insulted at your… insult!'_

She looked at him slyly, not to be beaten at fake pouting, "Well good then."

_'Yes.'_

"Indeed."

_'Sure.'_

"Hmph."

…

…

…

Silence… shifting colors of gray and warm gold.

…

…

And the sound of crunching snow hung in the air as they walked on.

…

Joey took a step closer to Raven.

Raven took a small step towards Joey, her gaze directed towards the sidewalk.

Joey noticed her downcast gaze, and thought he saw a slight flush on her cheeks not summoned by the cold.

Joey put his arm over Raven's shoulder.

Her blush grew obvious.

The air around them mysteriously rose by a good 10 degrees.

…

Raven let her head fall onto his shoulder.

"Sorry I called you annoying, Joey." She joked, and nuzzled her head into him.

Joey chuckled breathily and gave the cold girl a warm one-armed hug.

She smiled into his shoulder a scooted closer to her walking partner.

And the two walked on, in warm golden silence.

Snow crunching under their synchronized footsteps.

_**H**_

Across the street, on a rooftop, watching the pair, stood a tall, malicious, and mechanical being. Black all over except for a white stripe down the center of his face, he was well hidden as he followed the two Titans.

He recorded everything with his two mechanical eyes…

… which was sent for observation by his master's lone, organic optic...

In a gray survelliance room a rich, deep voice both thunderous and wispy at the same time echoed across the silent walls of the abandoned room, **"Move in, deliver a warning…"**

_**H**_

"Y-Yo-You-" Herald stammered.

"Mal! This is not what you think!" quipped Aqualad, dropping Speedy to the ground in the process.

Mal found his voice, "BULLSHIT! You two were _making the hell out!_ The rumors are true! This is… this is… Oh God! Oh-Oh God!"

Roy jumped up and growled fiercely, "If you tell anyone I swear I will-"

"Roy, just calm down a little, baby." Garth said, putting a hand on the archers chest.

Mal nearly threw up.

Roy ignored the Atlantean's consolation, "I will kill you if you ever tell a single fucking soul that-"

The archer was once again cut off, this time by Isaiah and Wally exiting the party thru the same door Mal had come out of only moments before.

"So I figured I'd be true to Jean and not try and hit on any girls."

"Don't lie Wally, I know you did just as bad as me dawg." Isaiah smirked at the fastest teen alive.

The two stopped in their tracks seeing the scene before them, although since neither had witnessed Roy and Garth's… entanglement, they didn't quite understand what was happening.

A moment passed in an uncomfortable silence tinted a queer yellow by the neon signs of the party.

"What's happening?" Isaiah queried.

"Yea, I don't understand." Wally added.

On an impulse Mal blurted out the truth, "GUYS! I CAME OUT HERE AND, AND… THEY'RE GAY!" the horn-freak stammered and pointed at the black and red haired boys.

Isaiah and Wally looked at each other, and laughed.

"Yea, right!"

"Good one, Mal!"

A sigh came from Atlantean lips. Roy put his face in his palm.

"We- we're not gay." Garth stammered.

Roy grumbled.

Before Mal could retort with a cry of 'bullshit' Garth continued, "We're bi…"

**_H_**

"I just don't understand, Joey. What could you possibly see in his works?"

'_The same thing you see in Poe's works, they are shining paragons of art!'_

"I highly doubt Edgar Allen Poe and Kevin Smith even belong in the same sentence. And since when has Kevin Smith been a paragon of anything besides stupidity."

_'Hey! That was totally uncalled for… blasphemer.'_

The mystic maiden shoved the hazel-eyed boy playfully and sighed, "Aaah, Joey. You're so stupid."

Joey just nodded and smiled in mute and happy agreement… before registering what she had said, _'Wait, what was that?'_

"Nothing… stupid." Raven slyly smirked.

'_No, don't nothing me! I'm serious!'_

The dark girl gave a small smiled to the fair boy, "I said don't worry about it, Joey."

As he continued to warmly keep her company and as she playfully pulled on the strings of his sanity, they were both being watched.

Over in an alley, two muscle cars were parked, filled with thugs.

The lead thug, a tall, muscular, black hair thing with sideburns of his own peered over at the unlikely pair with perpetually fierce red eyes.

On of his thugs spoke up, "What now, Tibolt?"

Tibolt Kapulit turned his dark, handsome, and scowling face around, "Those two are Titans, and they're all alone on our turf. Let the pair turn and look upon their death… get ready boys."

The thugs in both cars swiftly and silently loaded guns of all shapes and sizes. Tibolt looked back at the two and smiled wickedly …

And above on the snow covered rooftops of the alley stood the mechanical observer, witness to all, standing alone and unseen in a cold, crimson silence.


	5. No Time For Words

_**Chapter Five: No Time for Words**_

Back at Titan's Tower Starfire and Robin had discovered that they were the only two Titans left in the tower. But that was five minutes ago…

They fell on the bed, rolling and hugging, lips on lips, breath on breath, tongue on tongue, skin on skin.

Love's sweet embrace, more beautiful than a flower, but like all things golden, can last only an hour.

The two mouths disconnected as their lungs cried for air.

"Tim" gasped the fair flower, "So fortuitous are we that the tower is empty."

"Couldn't agree more." The unmasked Titan grunted.

A kiss stolen from a set of lips, the same sin returned.

Long holding, rolling, flashes of sheets and skin.

Sweat.

Two smiles.

And a lack of air oh so sweet.

Their faces next to each other as their dance continued, hearts pounding, eyes met. Green on blue.

And all was right with the world as a strong golden silence settled over the young couple.

And then the crime alarm rang.

…

Kori sighed.

"Shit!" Tim grunted and threw off the sheets.

_**H**_

Time slowed as his green eyes widened. Murakami High was burning, and it was burning furiously as if some demigod of grace and tragedy had bestowed a loathing gesture upon it and now it was glowing ablaze to show it's anger.

Firemen and their oxymoronic wielding of water was in vain and they new it, they persisted in any case. The building was nearly down to its frame and the firemen had stopped going in. Many charred, burnt, and soot-blackened high school students and faculty were strewn about the schoolyard, many were somber, some were crying, a few looked on in silent disbelief.

But a select few were yelling and causing a commotion, there was still someone in there.

Whether it was his enhanced animal hearing or the tides of fate or the power of love Garfield never knew, but he heard whom they were yelling at the firemen to rescue.

And for his whispered words the world fell silent, _"Tara…"_

Time resumed its normal rate as Beast Boy opened the door to the moving T-Car and flung himself towards the doors of the school.

"BB! WHAT THE HELL?" Cyborg looked up and saw what Beast Boy had seen. The difference, however, was that Murakami High had no significance other than it was burning. He didn't know whom it held captive.

Cyborg was about to get out and follow Beast Boy when the panic light went off on the dashboard. Somewhere there was trouble, and it was his duty to follow it.

He looked at the screen displaying where the signal was originating from, then back up at Beast Boy who had just rushed into the building. Then back down.

"It's all you, BB."

And the tires squealed off into the city, leaving the green teen to his own devices.

**_H_**

Beast Boy rushed recklessly into the building, forgetting all his training in a furious rush of impulse and emotion; and for this he was met with a rushing wall of black smoke to the face.

It covered his eyes, swam stinging up his nose, jumped in his mouth filled with it's taste of burnt life and home and sickness. It dove down his throat and into his lungs where it proceeded to squelch out all the air and saturated his body with its foul course stench.

But he staggered forward, only for her.

His eyes watered, his lungs gasped only to be met with more smoke, and it was only then did he feel the sweltering heat. He couldn't see it, he didn't even dare open his eyes and if he did all he would see is black, black smoke.

He got down low, on his hands and knees, choking, blind, boiling, and dying.

Between coughs of smoke and crawling he mumbled, _"Tara... I won't let you die."_

His lungs heaved, his body sweat, his eyes grew unfocused and lulled back.

And then, as a pious flood purging a world of sin and malice, the smoke, the flames, and the awful smell of burning schoolbooks, locker photos and teenage notes of gossip, all rolled back and for a moment there was only white…

Peaceful, glorious, silent… white.

And then there was her, all of the memories of every moment they'd shared flashed before him in an instant. And a great power flowed thru him, an intense longing, he wanted her to live dammit, he wanted her to live…

And there was white… then there was smoke… then there was a Hell of flames, dying and crawling…

Then there was her…

**_H_**

Gun shots.

Yelling.

A flash of black magic.

A mute warcry.

Hazel eyes turned black and a panic stricken thug possessed and beating his teammates.

"H-Help! I CAN'T STOP IT! HE'S MOVING ME!" a thug shrieked as he involuntarily pistol whipped one of his buddies in the back of the head.

"Tony! What the hell are you doing?" Tibolt growled in the middle of the fight with the two Titans.

"I-I CAN'T CONTROL MYSE-"

_BANG!_

_FSHING!_

Tibolt had fired on his own (seemingly insane) man, only to have the bullet stopped by a small circle of ebony.

Then there was a stygnant flash and men flew thru the twilight air accompanied by the same obsidian energy.

The Ice Queen stepped up coldly, "Excuse me… he and I were talking." she levitated a nearby trash can and hurled it mentally at Tibolt.

The Kapulit smiled as his red eyes flashed and jumped ten feet in the air only to land back down behind the mystic girl.

"EAT HOT LEAD!" He fired his high caliber pistols in rapid succession, his red eyes wild with bloodlust.

"Fool." She held up a meditative gesture and blocked all the bullets in mid-air.

Tony, beaten down by his own boys, laid on the ground unconscious. His thoroughly confused friends stood looking over the body in a circle. Comically forgetting about their leader in their enthrallment.

"Did… did we stop him?" Asked one of the thugs looking over the body.

Cold, crimson silence…

A bright flash of green.

"AH!"

"WHAT THE!"

"MY EYES!"

Our golden crowned hero appeared in thin air, and fell on the blinded crooks in a flurry of martial arts and pure ass-beating skill.

After a few punches, kicks, and throws from the mute warrior subdued the invaders he glanced over the many unconscious bodies at the duel between Raven and Tibolt.

In desperation he whistled sharply.

The Kapulit's eyes moved off Raven for a moment and turned towards Jericho.

And Jericho's green eyes made _contact_ with his red ones.

Time slowed.

Jericho's hazel irises glowed and the rest of his eyes turned black… there was a bright flash of emerald light.

_FLASH!_

Time resumed. Jericho was no more. And Tibolt stopped firing.

"H-Hey! What's going on? WHAT THE SOAKED-IN-BLOOD-FUCK IS GOING ON?" Tibolt bellowed frightened as he watched his own hands holster his guns.

Raven stared cold, stoic, and emotionless at the man and said, "You messed with the Titans… that's what's going on."

Tibolt didn't have time to give a look before his own fist flew up into his face.

"AGH!"

His elbow flew down on his groin.

"ECK!"

He slammed his face hard into the brick wall of the alley with a sick _CRACK!_

…

And the villain slumped down, unconscious.

…

Raven stared at the body with a cold, eerie calm.

There was a bright flash of green and Jericho stood over Tibolt's motionless body. His black eyes shook and focused, then faded back to white with green irises.

The pair stood silent.

…

The tow-head grinned sheepishly and hand signed, _'We just had a date broken up by gangsters… I pretty sure that's a record or something.'_

Jericho had kept Raven in warm company all day in order to melt down the walls of icy solitude she constantly kept around her emotions, but when that first gunshot went off, shattering the warm comfort the two had forged, the emotional walls returned in all their frigid and stoic glory.

And they weren't going to be melted down again with such a simple joke.

In response she simply raised a brow, though if one observed closely a small curve graced the edge of her lips.

That's when the butt of a shotgun smacked across the back of her blue head-

_CRACK!_

-and her immaculate pale face fell with a sick thud to the concrete ground.

Jericho's eyes widened, his heart pounded, and a fury like no other festered, grew, and exploded deep in his chest. His hazel irises glowed malevolently, the whites of his eyes turned black.

_CH-CHUNG!_

"I wouldn't try anything, unless you want her brains to go 'splat' all over the place." Some random thug with a shotgun (who somehow managed to escape unconsciousness) grinned rottenly.

Jericho snarled and took a menacing step forward.

He pressed the cold barrel of the shotgun against Raven's pale neck, "Watch it, Titan." he said menacingly.

Jericho stopped, his eyes went halfway back to normal. His heart burned with rage but his mind was flooded with sorrow and worry…

_THWACK!_

… and that's when a mechanical fist flew into the thug's face, sending him flying into a brick wall of the alley.

Jericho's jaw comically hung in confusion.

The mechanical observer who had been watching turned around slowly, he had a tall, muscular form of sleek metallic black. A black trench coat filled with all sorts of gadgets that Jericho could not identify, a long face, a bald head with two gray mechanical eyes, and a thick stripe of pure white down the middle of the machine's face.

The tow-head hand signed in confusion.

"_Who I am is not important."_ Came the digital grown from deep within the black figure, _"What does matter is that I saved you, and my master wishes audience with you."_

Jericho looked uneasily at the figure.

"_My Master… Your Father."_

His eyes narrowed and thoughts ran thru his head at a mile a nanosecond.

The… the machine had saved them, but at his father's orders? It made little sense, but still…

He hand signed his reply swiftly.

"_Very well."_ and the mechanical figure walked down to the end of the alley.

Joey ran up to Raven's body and turned her over, his eyes darting worriedly over every single abrasion and physical transgression against her perfect beauty.

He felt her pulse.

'_Strong…'_ he mutely wheezed with immense relief.

She'd be alright.

He bent down and put his face close to hers, he smiled with relief and stroked her soft cheek.

"_Master Joseph."_ came the call.

His brow furrowed and his face frowned.

He put his arms underneath the small mystic and lifted her precious body up against his warm chest and arms.

The mechanical figure turned, _"Please, Master Joseph, this way. Your Father wishes to see you at his new home."_

But Joey didn't hear the digital abomination of a voice. He stood large, warm, golden, holding her small, cold, and precious body.

Two ends of the same spectrum… together.

Their aura's filled the air and mingled and in that moment a bond grew between the mute Titan and the mystic girl in his arms.

It was a crime against the world that the only person there to witness such a sight was a simple machine, ignorantly unaware of the significance, _"Please, Master Joseph, this way."_

Joey turned, Raven asleep in his arms, and followed the machine.


	6. Taciturn Parenting

**_Chapter Six: Taciturn Parenting_**

Numb sleep.

And then…

Eyes fluttered open, gazing out upon the world thru a large glass window. The shade of night had fallen on the snowy ground, and moonlight hung mistily past the glass of the window.

Raven blinked her eyes at the window a few more times and then got her bearings. She was lying in a large love seat, alone. The chair was in a large and extravagant room with expensive furniture and a high ceiling. This place was obviously a mansion.

Raven stood up, fighting off dizziness, and explored the room some more. To her right there was a staircase against the wall going both up and down. Around the room was a large fireplace and a large table along with other comfortable pieces of furniture like the love seat. A beautiful rug was set on the hardwood floors. And the grand window stood out attractively.

Just as Raven was beginning to get her sense back and asking herself _'Where am I anyway?'_ She heard the not-too-distant sounds of piano playing. She walked over to the staircase and gazed down. The mystic girl, mind still swimming and half numb from the shotgun blow to the base of her skull, walked lackadaisically down the stairs to a long hallway, following the piano's drifting melody.

The dark girl arrived at the end of the hallway to enter a room much like the one she awoke in. It had a large window and a high ceiling, but no fireplace and with a large grand piano.

Raven paced slowly around to see the player.

There sat a small girl no older than fourteen. She was thin and not tall, with waist-length hair of silver. The hair, Raven noticed, was even more surreal when the moonlight mist seeped from the window and struck her hair as the girl's delicate fingers moved across the keyboard, sending haunting harmonies thru the seemingly empty mansion.

And without a word, sound, or expression to announce Raven's presence the girl stopped playing and lifted her delicate hands slowing off the keyboard and pushed herself and the piano bench away from the leviathan of an instrument. The girl was in pajamas (Hello Kitty, ironically) and was barefoot, Raven noticed, as the pianist jumped onto the hardwood floor with a near silent thud. The girl then looked up at Raven with light blue eyes and spoke with a sweet voice that was light and clear.

"Hehehe, you woke up! That's good, I was beginning to worry. I almost told Wintergreen to take you to the hospital despite what Daddy said, you know."

Raven cleared her throat and spoke, her voice echoed thru the large, unlit room, "Umm, thanks. I think." She rubbed her temples, trying to gain lucidity, "But… where am I, and who are you?"

"Oh! Excuse me Miss Raven! My name is Rose. Rose Wilson. This is my Daddy's mansion!" the girl nearly-chirped. This 'Rose Wilson' was an average (albeit cute) girl for her age despite her odd colored foliage, but it was obvious that beneath the average girl there was something else that was, mysterious… elusive.

Raven raised a brow.

"Umm, OK. Hi, Rose." Raven said, trying to speak on the child's level, "I came here with someone. He was tall-ish with blonde hair."

Rose said nothing but only gazed with faux innocence.

Raven knew something was up.

"… you seen someone like that tonight?"

"I dunno, maybe you should describe him more. I see a lot of people in a day."

Raven grumbled.

"Listen you little… grrr… He had hazel eyes, broad shoulders."

Rose gazed.

Raven's eyes narrowed, "Side-burns, kinda quiet."

"Oh!" Rose said, "I may know who you're talking about." The girl with the silver mane enunciated slyly. "Was this boy, handsome?"

Raven again rubbed her temples trying to fight off the migraine that was inevitably emerging, "If you must know, yes. He was something like handsome."

The innocence of the girl melted and a mischievous and sly demeanor was exposed, "Oh, yea. You must mean my brother, Joey."

Raven's eyes widened instantly.

"Come, he and Daddy are talking!" She giggled as she skipped down the hallways with unusual agility and glee.

"Hey- Hey! Get back here you little cretin! What do you mean Joey's you're brother? Hey! You better not tell him I said that!"

_**H**_

The T-Car came to a tire screeching, blistering hot halt in front of a four-story building in the middle of Mid-town. He opened the door and looked up on the roof where all the activity was happening. "What the hell?"

Up atop the pillar of concrete and glass Robin and Starfire were at violent odds with a tall girl in a very large green shirt, long black hair, and a mask of a smiling cat on her face who was dancing and jumping and fighting the two Titans in a show of kung fu mastery.

Cyborg's eyes narrowed, "Cheshire, what is she up to now?"

And the bionic teen ran to the building at an astounding speed and proceeded to take the elevator to help alleviate his friends of the asian she-devil.

The elevator… of ACTION!

Whilst Cyborg was in the elevator, a dire battle was being fought on the roof.

Robin charged Cheshire with his bo staff drawn and swung at her face.

Cheshire produced six thin needles from her long green sleeves and stopped Robin's bo staff dead centimeters away from her masked-face.

"Since we're already this close, Robbie, how about a kiss?" Cheshire purred roughly.

"RAAAUH!" Starfire screeched unleashing a barrage of starbolts upon the villainess.

With grace and agility she stepped back from the Boy Wonder's bo staff, leapt in the air and twirled athletically around the alien energy.

"You'll have to be quicker than that, Titans. I was slowed down last time, this time you get no mercy." She purred before throwing a handful of needles at each Titan.

Robin viciously spun his bo staff, barely managing to stop all the needles and save himself.

The angry Starfire's eyes merely flashed with emerald energy and all the needles harmlessly melted in to small, hot puddles of liquid metal with fell to the roof and cooled.

"Hmm, impressive Titans."

"Give it up Cheshire, you can't stop us." Robin said with clichéd bravado.

"I bet you say that to all the ladies you want, Don't you Boy Wonder?" she purred seductively.

… just before dodging another super-heated starbolt.

"Robin is right. You _will_ be brought to justice. The only question is will this come down the hard way." Starfire's eyes flashed and alien energy immolated around her hands in a flame-like manner, "Or the _excruciatingly painful_ _way!"_

Robin nearly faltered from shock at the fiery girls wrath.

Only a chuckled came from behind the feline mask, "Zeal is with you, alien. But don't let your superfluous obsession with the Gotham Prince dull your senses. After all, we are in _battle!_" and out those long green sleeves flew dozens of tiny little balls that scattered across the roof, jumped high in the air, and exploded with great vigor! These odd weapons left behind a thick cloud of gas that blinded, choked, and incapacitated both the Boy Wonder and the red crown Princess.

Only her mask kept Cheshire from feeling the effects, "Hehehe. Now, Titans. Take this." She said, charging thru the smoke and beating down both Titans with her martial arts skill. After a moment of this violence,

"RAAAAAUGH!" came Cheshire's shrill cry as she leapt in the air, both Titan's in hand, and slammed them hard into the concrete of the roof. Unconsciousness.

"Feh. That was anticlimactic." The asian warrior muttered cynically.

A soft _ding_ came from the other side of the roof along with a _whir_ of mechanical doors.

"How's this for climactic? Bitch!" Cyborg bellowed, firing his sonic cannon.

_ZAAAAAAP!_

_**H**_

Raven followed the mischievous silver-haired she-imp down the long, luxurious hallways of her Father's mansion.

Joey's Father's mansion…

Raven had regained much of her lucidity but now her mind was clouded by questions and uncertainty.

She'd get to the bottom of it.

After entering a large library, climbing the spiral staircase in the center, and walking down a short, dead-end corridor, Rose chirped, "Here we are, Miss Raven."

Raven gave the girl a glare that said, 'If you tell, I'll kill you.'

Rose only winked.

Raven growled under her breath.

Rose smirked.

The two glared, at odds.

"My Father's Study, Joey is in there." Rose gestured again to a large wooden double-door.

Raven gazed at the extravagant, richly colored double-doors. She looked halfway up and engraved and colored in gold was the script, 'Cogito Ergo Sum.'

Raven raised a brow with an interested, "Hmmm… guess your dad is smart."

No reply.

Raven looked around and saw that Rose had vacated the hallway.

With a shrug she turned and looked at the handles to push open the doors when she spied what was engraved in gold above those handles.

"Study of Slade Wilson"

Raven's eyes widened and she gave a large gasp, then, "Oh shit."

She recoiled from the doors like they were a viper about to bite. She stared wide eyed thru the doors as she press herself against the opposite wall.

She stood there, in a queer silence of the yellow-walled corridor, just outside that room…

…

Then, she heard his voice. That thunderous whisper of a man so dangerous he withstood her Father without a second's hesitation.

But, though his words were muffled and his diction not understood, the tone in that remarkable voice had a hint of something she had never felt from this person before.

Slade's voice, as an empath she could feel as well, was unmistakably warm. Not necessarily happy. But very warm.

Raven overcame trepidation and tip-toed to the door and carefully pressed her ear to it so she could hear.

She could hear Slade speak for a moment and then an intermission of silence in which Joey was surely hand signing a reply.

Though she couldn't make out all the words she did get bits and pieces of what Slade said.

She closed her eyes and opened her mind, releasing her power… and felt… felt… feelllt…

Slade was an ever-mysterious presence; he was manipulative and calculating, even in this current situation. But still there was that unmistakable warmth she had never attributed to the mastermind.

Joey, on the other hand, was alight with rage and defiance. Obviously angry with his father, she could taste his malice.

But, for all the opposition within Joey, he was not even close to violence. And, he too had that same warmth. Now, this was nothing new for Joey. As long as Raven had known him he was a kind person, a lover and muse at heart. But in such a state of fury it was an odd thing to sense.

And, despite the odds obviously between the two, the warmth told Raven it was safe to enter…

She gripped the handles, set her face to emotionless, and swung open the doors to the study of what may have been the most dangerous man alive.


	7. Love's Words Cannot Be Heard

**_Chapter Seven: Love's Words Cannot Be Heard_**

Two gazes met her.

She walked in.

Joey's jaw dropped, he was leaning forward in a large, red, luxury chair and had apparently been hand signing something vulgar to his merc father when she entered.

Their gazes met, Raven tried to reassure Joey with her eyes.

He seemed to get the message.

"Well, how about this? Long time, no see." Slade bassed from behind his desk.

Raven had looked for Joey first when entering the room, but now she gazed forward and saw something she never thought she'd see.

Slade was sitting behind a large wooden desk. The desk had a few books strewn about, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, from T. H. White to H. P. Lovecraft. It was obvious the man was an eclectic reader. There was even an exotic reading lamp on the desk.

But, despite the detail just given to you, Raven saw none of this, she was too busy staring at the unmasked Slade.

He was in white. All white, as it turned out. Long white pants of some flannel material, a white undershirt and a long sleeved relaxation outer shirt, and like his daughter he was barefoot. This untarnished ensemble of white was made more surreal as she absorbed more of him, he was remarkably fit with a well toned build, but he was far more aged than she had expected as he had pure white hair and a white goatee. The scene of unblemished blank was finished off by the white eye-patch over his right eye.

Raven nearly faltered.

His lonely, light blue eye shown brilliantly and pierce Raven thru with it's knowing. He lifted a glass of wine and took a longer sip than was the norm.

Slade gestured in his snowy glory at a twin chair to the one Jericho was sitting in, "Please, Miss Raven. Take a seat. There is so much to talk about."

_**H**_

Stumbling, burnt, charred, but strength returning, courage had never faltered.

And she in his arms.

Beast Boy looked down at her smoked and soot covered figure… thankfully not burnt except for a little singe here and there.

"Tara…" he whispered to the unconscious amnesiac.

He was in the back schoolyard, on the opposite side of the inferno as the rest of the student body. They were surely wondering what happened to the green Titan with grave anticipation.

But fortune had given the two of them privacy, and he wasn't going to argue.

Tara wasn't the semi-anorexic stick from the days of old when she had been running from town to town. This wouldn't have ever been a problem had she just stayed with the Titans long enough for them to take care of her.

She had a little meat on her now, although it was obvious she was athletic as ever. Had Garfield not brushed with death a little closer than usual back there he probably would have been slightly aroused. But as it was he was euphorious that she was merely unharmed.

"Guess once a hero, always a hero…"

He set her down gently on the green grass…

-and then flopped down ungracefully next to her.

Breathing, breathing, breathing…

Feeling the grass beneath him, the earth.

He could feel the entire globe beneath him and as he gazed tired and sweaty and burnt up at the clean, cool stars in the infinite night sky. He realized that despite being a superhero he too was indescribably insignificantly miniscule. And the green Titan in an epiphany realized that superhero or school girl, we are all mortal. We are all not timeless. We are all alike.

We are only human, little insects buzzing around the flickering lights that shine down upon the stage of the universe.

The he let his head fall to the side, shifting his gaze away from the starry starry night and onto the sleeping girl next to him. And suddenly it didn't matter that he was so small.

She stirred and moaned uncomfortably.

"C-col-ld…" the blonde mumbled in her sleep. The burning school, now just a flaming skeleton of wrecked panopticon, had caused her to sweat profusely, and now that she was out in the fresh night air she was shivering very much so.

Garfield acted on impulse; he turned on his side and grabbed her in his arms, hugging her against his chest. He put his chin on her crown and stroked her soft gold hair as she shivered against his green form.

"Shhhhhh…. It's ok Tara, I'm here."

She stirred, and her eyes fluttered open to a green chest.

And for a second, it seemed perfectly right…

-and then she was nothing but confused, 'where was she' 'what happened' 'who was this?'

But she let it go… because for some reason she remembered these arms, this chest.

And then, his voice.

"Everything will be ok Tara. Even if you decide to forget everything about your life as a Titan, I'll still be there for you. Watching over you, you can count on it." Garfield said words he thought fell on absent ears.

But those words were very much caught by the confused blonde's ears…

… and those ears, though puzzled, liked what they heard.

_**H**_

"How the SOAKED-IN-BLOOD-HELL did she knock out Cyborg anyway!" Kid Flash shouted across empty street to Hot Spot(Isaiah).

"HellifIno! Probably the same way she took out Herald and the Brokeback Titans!" Hot Spot tossed over his shoulder while unleashing heat charges upon the still performing Cheshire.

…

"… Snkkkrtt! HAHA! Oh man. 'Brokeback Titans', classic. Haha! That was just waaay too good."

"FLASH! What are you doi-AUGH!" Hot Spot shrieked as he was jumped kicked across the battle-scarred street.

He eyed his rag-dolling comrade with a grimace, "Oooh, that's gonna leave a mark. Heh, Sorry Buddy!"

And the Asian warrior was in front of him. Needles in hands. Ready to strike.

"Hello there, handsome." Cheshire purred in her fighting stance.

The Fastest Boy Alive smirked as he kept a relaxed posture, "Hey, baby. Not that I don't appreciate the flirt, but you should know guys, well… we really don't like bad pussy."

…

Cheshire frowned behind her mask.

…

Kid Flash mocked, "Mrrooowww! Baaad Pussy!"

A small, freezing breeze blew.

"You… will… DIE!" she screamed as she hurled her deadly needles at his figure.

But before they could get halfway to him Kid Flash had dashed forward and grabbed every single one of them out of mid air.

Cheshire gasped and was taken aback.

Kid Flash twirled the needles carelessly between his fingers, "Giving me presents? How nice of you! I usually don't get things this nice on the first date, y'know. Although I guess you'd have to dish out good presents. What with the whole 'Mean Pussy' and all."

He ducked a powerful roundhouse kick-related retaliation.

A dodged punch.

A back-stepped low kick.

A side-stepped jump kick.

Cheshire turned and glared thru her mask.

Kid Flash yawned, "Oh man. I am bored out of my min-DAAAH!" The Fastest Boy alive cried as he fell to the ground, holding his groin.

"Hehehehe…" the martial artist giggled lowly, retracting her leg from the low blow.

"Not cool… so not cool."

"That's just the beginning. RAUGH!" Cheshire roared as she brought a full kick to Kid Flash's head, sending him rag-dolling.

_**H**_

Not very far away from the newest scene of Cheshire's rampage, an Atlantean and an archer were regrouping and planning a counter attack on the vicious villain.

"Oh… my head."

"Just get up, Garth! Dammit, I know you can stand."

"Alright, alright. I'm up, Roy. Now, lets attack together, but sneak up on her while Flash is distracting-"

"No Garth."

"Whu- What the hell do you mean, 'No Garth'?" Aqualad asked confused.

Speedy stared around an alley corner as Cheshire kicked Kid Flash across the scarred street.

"You go get more help. I'll take care of her-"

_SLAP!_

"What are you thinking, Roy? For some reason that girl is twenty times as dangerous as the last time she cause trouble! She took out Robin and Starfire at the same time! You can't handle her by yourself!"

The archer stared for a moment of cold, crimson silence, "You're wrong, Garth. I can't beat her in combat because of whatever new-found abilities she's practiced tonight. But I can definitely _handle_ her. I am her ex, afterall."

…

A long, cold silence. A chilling breeze blew thru the alleyway between the two.

"So that's how it is. Going to whore yourself to your ex and you don't want me here to see it?" Garth asked, slightly hurt.

Roy turned on his heel to face the black-eyed Titan. "That's about the size of it." He grunted before pulling his lips to his.

After a long moment they parted, "Now go get help. I may need it still."

"You got it." Aqaulad said as he lifted up a man-hole and jumped into the sewers to find help.

_**H**_

Cheshire grinned as she picked up Kid Flash by the collar of his uniform, "What do you say now, fool?"

Kid Flash, who despite his superspeed he had been caught in her web of ass beating and hadn't escaped, sneered at the masked villainess with his bloody lip, "I say, you're not bad pussy, you're just plain rotten! Ptcho!" the Fastest Boy Alive finished by spitting on her mask, saliva and blood ran down the oriental carvings.

Cheshire quivered with anger.

Kid Flash sneered in defiance despite being in great danger, "What now? Bitch."

Cheshire tightened her grip on his collar and rose a fist back to pummel him, "RRRRR-"

"Stop!"

She turned, and growled, but was taken aback by the sight of Speedy, without his bow drawn, arrows still in their quiver. He was at ease.

"Don't you ever just lay down?" she hissed with malice.

"C'mon Jade, you know I can go all night." He smirked.

With a growl she took a menacing step towards him.

"Whoa!" Roy thru his hands up in the air, "I'm not here to fight. Not again. (he had enough bruises) There's something going on here Jade. You weren't always this strong. You weren't always this malicious, either. Lets… talk. Just like we did back when we were together. Like we did back in Kyot-"

"Talk is for the weak, Fag! Let's fight!" She whipped out more needles from her long, green sleeves.

"No, Jade." Roy said, dropping his bow, his quiver of arrows, and finally his eyemask to the cold pavement, "You can beat the shit out of Speedy. But you can't hurt Roy."

…

A breeze blew thru the night.

…

Cheshire's head turned to the side slowly in contemplation.

…

Roy stood in a relaxed posture, his face telling her to come to him.

…

Kid Flash gave the whole scene a look that said, 'What the Hell is going on?'

…

Another cold breeze…

And she dashed, quicker than the blink of an eye, and swung her needles for his face-

Only to stop a millimeter away from his temple.

"Jade…"

Her small, cold hand trembled with trepidation in the night air, long silver wands of metal death balancing between her delicate fingers. Stars twinkling in the sky.

"Jade." Roy took her trembling hand down and made her drop the needles.

The rouge villainess fell against his chest and began to sob, "God, Roy. I hate you so much." She placed a hard fist lightly against his chest. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…." Tears, Roy could tell, were welling up in the green eyes behind that mask, "H-hold me. Like you used to. Before I k-knew you were a hero. Before you knew I was a v-villain. Before any of this."

And he did. He held her short, lithe, sobbing body against his as this deadly assassin wept on his shoulder like a little girl who felt guilty about stepping on a bug. The tears came down from the mask and onto Roy's chest now and her sobs grew a little louder.

Roy was taken aback. Jade had opened up to him in the past (_'Literally.' he amusedly thought_) but she had never _ever _cried like this. He brought a hand up and ran it up and down the length of her trembling back, soothing and reassuring her.

As he moved to take off her mask she stopped him, "No, n-not here." She sniffled, "Somewhere people won't see. You, y-you said we could… talk?"

"Of course." He whispered roughly into her ear, "If you'd like that."

She sniffed and nodded, "Yes, I'd like that. Very much."

And the two walked off into the jungle of buildings abandoned from the battle in each others arms under the night sky and it's glowing full moon.

_**H**_

"Would you like anything to drink? Wine, maybe." Slade offered the mystic girl as she sat her pretty, stoic self down. Raven's petite figure seeming mildly comical in the massive chair.

She pretended not to notice.

Slade acted like he didn't notice, but subtly made it known that he did.

Jericho was still in such shock that he neither noticed nor made an attempt to falsely not notice.

All he could do was sit there. Beaten and bruised, tired, headache pounding from arguing with his father for the past half an hour. Worried like a mad man for Raven's safety in this place filled with booby traps and other assorted oddities; so much that his stomach had cramped up horribly. And she just walked in like it was nothing a mere few seconds ago.

He was happy, relieved… but at the same time he wanted to throw up. But obviously he couldn't. For multiple reasons.

He was in debate with his father.

Raven, whether she would show it _'Or even knows it.'_ he though, needed and quite possibly wanted him there.

And, perhaps most influentially, his legs had refused to move since the mystic girl waltzed into the study.

"No." Raven turned down the offer of alcohol.

And so, the heated banter began between the empathic jewel of Azarath and the One-Eyed Lord of the criminal Underworld.

And poor Joey was caught right in the middle.


	8. Whispers of a Menace

_**Chapter Eight: Whispers of a Menace**_

"Hmm, I see. Well, Miss Raven. I'm sure that you have many questions." Slade said richly.

"Yes. Many." Raven said as she turned her head and glared coldly in Jericho's direction.

The tow-head snapped out of his shock and realized, not only was he knee deep in his father's shit, Raven now knew his dad was the Titan's most infamous rival. Whether the latter was worse because now his loyalty to the Titans might be called into question or because Raven would now hate him, he wasn't quite sure.

Raven's gaze snapped back cold and sharp to Slade.

'_Pretty sure it's gonna be her hating me.'_ Joey thought to himself with a gulp.

He proceeded to profusely hand-sign an explanation to Raven in a manner so fast it became an unreadable blur.

"Let, me do the talking, Son." Slade added sickening extra emphasis on the last word, "Any questions you have, Miss Raven. I will be more than happy to answer."

Raven raised a brow, "OK. First question. Why are you so willing to answer my questions and how do I know you're not lying?"

The criminal mastermind wasted no time in answering:

"Wouldn't the real question be why have I been absent for six and a half months since the final confrontation at what was almost the End of Days? Or be why have I let you, Raven, a Titan, see me unmasked and in my very own study? Wouldn't the real question be why did I show you my very own daughter? Or why have I given you the chance to run amok in my home nearly unsupervised?" Slade enunciated smoothly as his one eyed gaze clashed with Raven's own glare, "I think the fact that I have not killed you is proof enough I'm not going to lie. Wouldn't you agree?"

A moment of tense silence.

…

Jericho began to mutely sweat bullets as his father and his date engaged in an epic battle of optic hatred. The glares and grimaces where of such intense magnitude that the tow-head began to wonder if something might not spontaneously combust.

"Ok." Raven sighed agreeably at last, "Now, Slade. Tell me exactly what you two were talking about."

Jericho began to furiously hand-sign again, both of his fellow occupants in the study paid no heed.

"Quite simple, Miss Raven. I would be more than happy to explain…" Slade said, his pious voice dripping with loathing. "Joseph and I were talking about he, you, and the little 'date' you two were just having. Despite the many obvious dangers." He bassed.

"Care to elaborate?" Raven's voice cut thru the study, an added layer of sharp ice fixed onto her question.

"It's obvious that Joseph is very different from me, but believe it or not I do have the boy's best interest in mind."

Joey rolled his eyes and gave a mute _'Yea right.'_

"I was telling my boy that if he knew what was good for him he'd stay away from you." Slade said, taking a large sip of wine. "_Far_, far away!"

"And why did you feel the need to relate that to Joseph?" Raven all but growled.

Joey raised a fair brow in surprise.

As did his father, "First name basis? Heh, Raven… it appears Joey's old Wilson charm works even on half-demoness. Which is the exact reason I felt the need to warn my wayward second heir. Your emotions cause you to lose control of your powers."

The mystic girl didn't hesitate, "Ever since Trigon was defeated I've had more control over that particular area of life. You don't give me credit enough if you think I'd jeopardize the city like that. I have much more of a free reign over my emotions and a much tighter grip over my powers," Raven's voice came frigid, "Especially when I meditate."

Slade's subtle glare lost it's subtlety as it changed into a glower of accusation, "Do not lie, Raven. The truth suits you better." Slade's infamous thunder echoed about the book laden shelves.

Both Titans present raised incredulous brows.

Raven was so baffled by Slade's sudden and uncharacteristic explosion she could only leave her mouth slightly hanging in confusion.

Joey took up the reigns of conversation, _'What are you talking about Father? You were about to get to this when Raven entered the room, right? Well what the soaked-in-blood Hell are you talking about? And more importantly, why should I listen to you over Raven?'_

Joey's father's lonely eye was ablaze with passion and apprehension, "Joseph… judging by her reaction this simple self-pitying girl truly does not know… Sweet Red Michael." The white villain simpered in uncharacteristic worry.

His head nodded back up and gazed at both his son and the mystic girl (which gazing in two directions must be extremely difficult for a man with one eye) and murmured, "Since the incident with Trigon I have kept tabs on the workings of the ethereal world. The occult, the church, the Catholics especially! And lately… demonry in the world is up, and rising."

Raven replied calmly, voice laced with a slight boredom, "That happens from time to time Slade. Trust me, as a mystical being, I know."

Slade gave a low, almost insane chuckled which turned itself into a mild cackle reminiscent of a madman's call.

Needless to say, Joey and Raven were freaking out.

The usually err-less and eerily calm villain stood up from the chair behind his desk and laughed a helpless, hopeless, sad laugh. He refilled his wine glass and paced across the study to a grand window showing the peaceful holiday scene outside of rolling white hills, tall snow covered trees, and flakes falling beautiful to the ground like sweet peck-kisses from the heaven to the earth.

And Slade saw red. Unrelenting, unquenchable, crimson from the deepest, darkest pits of the inner mind.

The mastermind cackled on in his cacophony, "Yes, dark-child. Levels of good and evil often fluctuate in somewhat of a… scale of ethics. But what concerns me is this… heh. Further down along the cost from the city in which you protect, a band of demon summoners was found dead. They had apparently been practicing satanic rituals at the time. Now, spiritual experts and physics, along with all the damn phonies for T.V., got a good look at the place. And by pulling a few strings I have seen pictures. Everyone who isn't a fraud in it for the media publicity agrees, as do I, that they succeeded in summoning whatever it was they were fishing for."

…

The lights seemed to flicker dimmer for just a moment.

…

A disturbing cold settled upon the room.

"And?"_'And?'_ Raven and Joey asked at the same time.

Slade quietly cackled in front of the window, "The main symbol in the summoning was the Mark of Scathe!"

A wave of dead frozen shock ran along the two Titan's spines.

Joey had read about the dealings with Trigon's invasion, and he knew well enough that he should be scared shitless.

But Raven… Raven had been there and had experience her father more than any of the other Titans possibly could have. Even though it had been proven she could repel him, she knew what this could mean.

And she lost control.

Her vision blurred, the room became dizzy as she fell prey to vertigo.

'_Raven!'_ Joey mutely screamed as Raven fell from her chair to the floor, gasping for air.

Raven's gut knotted in intense painful fear, vision blurred things into an unrecognizable kaleidoscope, her head swam in confusion and sheer dread. Joey's warm hands on her shoulder and his caring aura meant nothing in this excruciating phobia she was drowning in.

She spewed vomit all over the solid wood floor of Slade's study…

… and she passed out to black.

_**H**_

After discovering that the disillusioned blonde had heard his confession of affection, Garfield showed Tara to the police, her school mates, and by that time, her parents that were waiting on the other side of the school yard.

After getting checked for injuries, changing into a better pair of clothes, and checking out with her friends and the authorities, Tara approached her foster parents again…

…and the certain green teen they were pouring their thanks over.

"Seriously, it's OK! Just doing what I do." Beast Boy tried to downplay his heroics to the over-grateful parents.

"Don't act like that son! What you did was really brave." Tara's foster father, a regular modern day Mr. Cleaver, said happily.

"YOU SAVED MY BABY!" Tara's foster mom, a rather large but friendly woman, grabbed the scrawny Titan in a bear hug and sobbed her thanks and praise with big, wet tears of joy.

As Tara approached the scene with a deep inner smile she set out to save her savior, "Uh, Mom, you might want to let go. I think you're suffocating him."

The mother took a big sniff, "Whu? OH MY! Dearie are you OK?" she let him go, and began to inspect him for injury, "I Am So SORRY! WAAAAAH!" the large woman bear hugged him again, w happy he was fine.

"M-mom. I think you should really let go of him." Tara giggled.

"Wha? OH DEAR I DID IT AGAIN!" the large woman screamed in panic.

Beast Boy, after quickly catching his breath, weezed out, "It's fine, Mrs. Ahem. Woo."

After catching his breath the Titan turned to the blonde and asked sweetly, "Are you OK?"

The Father and Mother looked at the two intently with a golden silence.

"Y-yea. I'm fine. How about you? You're more burnt up than me, shouldn't you go see the ambulance or something?" Tara replied.

Beast Boy looked down and noticed his injuries for the first time, burns. They normally would have been scar-forming for an average person, but he wasn't an average person. "Nah, don't worry about it. I'm a superhero afterall. It's what I do."

Tara giggled a little.

The Mother and Father's heads turned to each other with knowing gazes and they giggled too.

The two teens gave them odd looks, "What?" Tara asked, annoyed.

"Oooh, nothing Tara." The Mother cooed.

Tara caught on to exactly what her mother was thinking, and was thoroughly embarrassed (although Beast Boy, in typical hormonal male style, was clueless), "Mom! Stop it!" Tara fumed, arms at her side, fuming.

Her mother giggled all the more.

Beast Boy stood there quite clueless.

"Uh, we'll see you at home Tara." the Father said as the parents headed for the car.

Tara's fuming instantly ceased and she gave them a 'Bzuh?' look.

Beast Boy spoke up, "Wait, you're not going to give her a ride?"

The Mother tossed a quickly formulated lie over her shoulder, "Oh, we have pick up her younger daughter from her piano recital we were at. She needs a ride home and we think Tara would rather be home a soon as possible, right Tara?"

Tara stood dumbfounded, "Right…"

The Father took over, "Well, Mr. Beast Boy. We'd really appreciate it if you'd walk our daughter home. It's not too far from here and she needs someone to keep her company. You don't have to of course-"

"No! No!" Beast Boy cut in, "Of course I'll walk Tara home!"

Tara shot a weird look at her savior for his eagerness.

Beast Boy noticed and blushed and offered, "That is, if its cool with you."

"Yea, s-sure." Tara said.

"It's settled then. Thanks a lot Mr. Beast Boy. If you need anything Tara, call us. We'll be home as absolutely soon as we can."

"By sweetie! By Beast Boy, oh you sweetie you! You- YOU SAVED MY BABY! WAAH!" The mother had our changeling hero in a death hug again before letting go, kissing Tara, and walking into the car, smiling.

And the car drove off.

…

…

…

…

…There stood the two teens, dumbfounded that her parents had left like that.

… the skeletal remains of the school still smoldered and smoked behind them. A cold breeze blew between them.

"S-sorry about your school." Beast Boy offered.

"It's OK. I wasn't a big fan anyway. Ya know?" Tara sighed sadly.

The two teens stood in the night, stars twinkling overhead, alone except for the few firefmen and police still about. Staring at the wreckage. Wreckage of a life lost, past forgotten, but no matter how much it burns away, the wreckage is still there.

He wanted to reach out, to touch her. But he couldn't. This may have been Tara, but it wasn't Terra.

This was just another girl.

"So, uh… which way to your house?" He asked with a cheesy smile.

The blonde saw the cheesy smile and giggled hard, the shaking of her body shivering out some of her melancholy of the day's events.

"I-its this way. Hehehe." And Tara led them on their way.

_**H**_

In the car on the way to pick up their younger daughter from a piano recital, Tara's foster parents conversed.

"So, we did just leave our blonde teenage daughter alone with a hormonal teenage boy who just saved her life and has a mutual attraction with, right?" the Father asked.

"Yep." The Mother replied.

"And we're OK with that, right?"

"Yep."

"…"

"…"

"Well allrighty then."


	9. Words Witheld, Let Go

_**Chapter Nine: Words withheld, let go**_

Swinging fast thru the city, blurring past the towers of metal in this modern jungle. The leader of the Titans acrobats himself across the city like an ancient demigod guardian, the fiery angel from beyond the heavens flies next to him as they follow the locater signals towards a large conglomeration of Titans.

And both knew, that was where Cheshire was.

_**H**_

Starfire, spying the huddle group of Titans in the middle of the torn and blasted street, soared down in a zip of speed that caused the air to rush and swirl in a spiral after her.

"Robin, there!" came her sweet voice as she descended thru the winter night.

Robin swung his way on stretching limbs and cords down the location of his team.

Huddled on the street where a battered and beaten trio consisting of Kid Flash, Herald, and HotSpot and standing around them was Aqualad and his reinforcements.

Pantha, who was pacing back and forth in irritation, Argent who happened to be staring off in space, thinking about something, and Jinx, who was holding and petting the bruised form of the Fastest Boy Alive.

Robin looked at Aqualad first, as he was the ranking Titan here, who was staring off at a particular abandoned building with arms crossed, foot tapping, and a glare so intense that the Boy Wonder wouldn't have been surprise if something spontaneously combusted.

"Aqualad, what's going on?" Robin asked as Starfire went to the wounded three.

"…" Aqualad grumbled towards the silent building.

Robin's eyemask gave a look of 'Bzuh?' and then the Titan snapped out of it, "Aqualad! Where's Cheshire!"

The Atlantean visibly shivered and spun on the caped crusader angrily, "Oh! I'll tell you where that damn little slut is! I tell you where she is! She's off with Roy doing the horizontal slide, that's what! Fucking two timing motherbitch!"

The whole group of Titans gave the wet-suit clad hero a wide-eyed look of amazment.

…

There was a moment of cold silence.

"OK. What's going on here?" Robin asked, eyemask squinting.

"Uh.. Robin!" Kid Flash shakily raised his hand like a nervous school-boy, "I-I know what's going on here!"

Aqualad turned with a flash of rage in his black eyes, "Wally don't you da-"

But it was too late, the speedster hand blurred out of his lover's arms and was whispering something into the Boy Wonder's ear.

Something that made the Boy Wonder's jaw drop to the asphalt beneath them.

"A-Aqualad… Is-is this…"

"OK! OK!" Aqualad screamed angrily, "I LOVE GUYS! OK? I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE THOUGHT OF SOME HOT, STEAMY, RIVULETS! AND I DEFINITELY LOVE SOME-"

"Speedy!" Starfire, either oblivious of or choosing to ignore Aqualad's loud exiting the closet, chirped happily as the archer came out with the small, unmasked, asian assassin.

"Titans, she's willing to turn herself in." Roy grunted and held the small girl closer to him as she shiver and shook.

And the Titans got a good look at the unmasked Cheshire for the first time.

_**H**_

Vision and cognizance spiraled around in the cranial cage of Raven's skull.

"Oomph…what's going on?" the mystic girl asked groggily. That's when those hazel eyes came into her vision, tan smooth skin, golden locks, with a curious look Joey stared down at the dark lady lying on the couch. "Joey? What's going on-"

Jericho shushed her, one of the few noises he could make, and helped her sit herself up on the couch…

… In the Titan's Main Room.

Raven's eyes widened and her migraine heightened as she noticed their location, "Joey… why are we in the Tower? Last I remembered we where in Slade's mansion."

Joey gave Raven a look that said 'What?'

He hand signed quickly to the confused girl, _'Raven, I'm sorry. In the fight in the alleyway you got hit upside the head by some random thug. Afterward I took him out and brought you back here. You have a concussion and you need to relax for a little while. Here, take this.'_ Joey smiled warmly as he handed the groggy Ice Queen a cup of warm tea that she took with quivering, petite hands.

Taking drink from his hands.

Her fingers slid to their usual spots on the smooth surface of the warm cup.

It felt good against her cold hands.

She raised her blue eyes to meet his hazel ones, "B-but Joey! I remember, I woke up in a mansion! And the piano, and Rose, and Slade's study, he's your dad and… and- Tr-Trigon! They had summoned Trigon! Or something like him!" Raven stammered.

Joey gave a worried but reassuring smile before hand signing good naturedly, _'Whoa, Raven. You know getting hit that hard on the head can make you imagine things, especially while you're unconscious. Come on Raven. Trigon? You kicked his ass, remember? And, Slade as my dad? Raven, do you honestly think that could even be a remote possibility?'_

Raven, head still swirling and groggy looked at his handsome face and made contact with those sweet, hazel eyes. Something warm and safe washed over her whole being, and it definately wasn't the tea.

"Y-your right Joey. I don't know what I was- but it was so vivid." Raven sighed.

Joey chuckled mutely, _'I know what you mean. Here, can you walk?'_

"I think so." Raven set down her untouched tea and tried to stand. She was soon up on the two wet noodles that were currently her legs, she appeared to have regained her balance when her head whirled with dizziness and she plummeted forward.

Into a strong chest and a pair of arms.

The groggy girl looked up, head hurting, mind confused, body off balance, and now extremely flustered, into that charming face.

Those deep, hazel eyes made her… trust him.

"J-Joey."

'_Yea?'_ he mutely mouthed.

…

A moment of warm, golden silence as the two stared at each other, her in his arms.

Their faces not an inch apart.

And the snow began to fall in the night sky behind them.

Raven, confused and not entirely lucid, leaned up to him and the two pairs of lips met as if it was a common practice.

And their arms wrapped around the other's body as the kiss grew more passionate.

Joey could feel her body pressing desiringly up against him, certain parts more than others, and in between the tongue war with Raven he noticed how warm it was between the two of them. A comfortable hot.

And the kiss broke as they parted for breath.

…

A moment simply past as the snow fell outside window in white silence.

"Th-thanks for the catch." Raven murmured, a large pink hue befalling her pale cheeks.

Joey smile warmly at the petite girl in his arms and put his forehead against hers.

The Ice Queen melted, and smiled back.

And the two stayed like that for what seemed like a glorious eternity in paradise.

Until…

"Ahem!" Argent cleared her throat with cynicism and gusto.

The two startled and gazed wide-eyed at the crew who had just stepped out of the elevator.

Argent, Pantha, and Jinx, each helping a wounded boy, and in Jinx and Kid Flashes case sneaking in grabs, pats and pinches whose morality were questionable.

"Well, well," Isaiah said from Argents side, "Jericho my man… you are GOD!"

He jumped off Argents supporting shoulder and bowed before the young teen, whose arm's were still around Raven by the way.

"Teach me, I am your humble student." Isaiah groveled mockingly.

Jericho embarassedly gave a mute chuckle.

The others giggled and wailed.

Raven was about to die.

"Yea, that's what you said to Speedy and Aqualad, but we all know how that turned out. HAH!" Kid Flash laughed.

Jericho gave Kid Flash a look that said, 'What?'

"Umm," the blushing mystic jumped out of Jericho's warm arms and had to grab onto the couch to stabilize herself, "Jericho tells me I have a concussion. Could one of you girls help me to the shower so I can clear my head?"

"Sure, apparently I'm done chauffeuring Hotstuff. C'mon hun." The pale girl gave the mystic her arm for support.

_**H**_

It would have been a scene of silent bliss, but as it was it was a scene of bliss with the echoing sounds of footsteps, barking dogs, and the occasional speeding car going by.

And, of course, the lovely sound of her voice.

"… and so that's my school year thus far." Tara finished happily, "So, what have you been up to since you stopped stalking me?" she asked playfully.

Beast Boy's brow began to collect sweat, "Hey, I wasn't stalking you that time. I was just… looking out for you."

She looked down to the cold sidewalk they were plodding across. The concrete sidewalk that was painted silver from the milky rays of the moon. And she spoke, "Trying to convince me I was a Titan."

Beast Boy inwardly groaned, and then outwardly groaned, "Ah, Tara. Eh, it wasn't like- I didn't mean to… ugh. Can we just… forget that for now?"

Tara's gaze kept to the ground but now she turned her head the opposite direction of the green changeling, "Oh… yea. Of course."

…

As a car blew past it stirred up a freezing bitter wind onto the two pedestrians.

And once again Beast Boy felt like a fly buzzing around the lights.

…

Suddenly the Titan burst forth, "Tara, have you remembered anything yet? Anything at all?"

"Dammit Beast Boy you just asked if we could leave it alone!" the small but volatile school girl exploded on the shape shifter.

The two stopped in their tracks.

Beast Boy held a look of apprehension on his face, which quickly melted into a look of melancholy, "You're right, sorry. Lets just get you home."

…

Tara stared, wide eye and lost in herself as the green boy that was starting to creep back into her memories trudged on ahead of her, broken and defeated.

And it was because of her.

She leaped forwards and grabbed a hold of Beast Boy's torso from behind, "I'm sorry for yelling at you just now Beat Boy. I hope you're not mad." She whispered quietly, longingly.

Beast Boy was out of himself, as if he was no longer in control of himself, and in thsi state he merely freed one arm and wrapped it around her body and rubbed her back, "Shhhh, Tara. It's OK. I forgive you. I forgive you... for everything."

Tara smiled, ignorant of the full measure of the last statement.

And the two plodded onto her house in the hugging fashion they were now in. Unbeknowst to them at the moment after dropping her off at her house and exchanging a secret and rushed kiss goodnight, Cyborg would roll up in the T-Car as he had been tracking the green one down. They would relate the night's stories to one another on the drive back to the Tower where they would meet everyone.

But for now, the two walked down the street in a warm golden silence, the dog's stopped barking, the cars were nowhere to be seen, and even their own footsteps where as light as the giggle of a butterfly.

…

"Beast Boy?"

"Yea Tara?"

"You smell nice."

_**H**_

Later that night in Jericho's room the blonde flung himself down on the waiting mattress of his bed with an innocent, satisfied smile.

Everyone had already returned and he heard all the stories of the night. After taking a shower and a quick and unexpected goodnight to him, Raven had quickly retired to her room. And now the Titans were sleeping, save for a few (namely Wally, Garfield, and Mal) who were probably still up laughing and muttering about Roy and Garth's newly discovered sexuality, which they would surely rip on them for.

It had been a long day, and Joey closed his hazel eyes with a mute sigh and attempted to fall into slumber within the quiet, snowy night.

…

…

…

His eyes snapped back open and a frown set itself upon his face. He hopped out of his bed and snatched up a photo that had been given to him this afternoon.

A photo of dead bodies, summoning circles, and the Mark of Scathe…

A picture given to him… by his father.

…

A moment of crimson silence in the room of the muse, mute, Titan.

…

He worriedly hid the picture away and dove back to bed to trade in his waking nightmares for ones of sleep.

_**END OF THE FIRST DAY**_


	10. Reverie, Part 1

_**Chapter 10: Reverie Part One**_

_"For the last time Garth, Jade and I didn't do anything!"_ the red hair archer grunted loudly at the Atlantean.

_"Oh sure, and Rosie O' Donnell likes guys!"_ The black eyed tempest retorted.

"I really wish they wouldn't be so flaming about their homosexuality." Argent said to Pantha from across the rooftop from the quarrelling pair.

"Why, you some kinda homophobe? Y'know they say that means you're only in the closet yourself." Pantha joked.

"Are you hitting on me girl?" Argent twisted her friend's words.

"Shut up." Pantha smiled.

"_Just tell me this Roy, which do you like better? Hotdogs or Tacos?"_

Pantha and her pale friend proceeded to vomit over the edge of the roof and ran to the elevator.

**_H  
_**

A young couple laid on a blanket lying on a snowy knoll on Titan's island overlooking the sparkling morning day. Cool mist blew up from the sandy, golden shore up to the knoll and onto the pair of entwined youths. To the two it felt like a refreshing tickle rather than a chilling breeze due to the heat they were, quite passionately, creating.

Pink hair, pale skin, cat eyes and reddish brown locks, deep blue eyes, and a winning smile… though at the time the smile was busy dancing with another.

One dance of lips and tongue parted into two glowing smiles.

The eclectic euphonies of paradise in the sighs of the lovers.

"So, you still feeling last night's effects?" Jinx purred softly into Wally's neck.

"Yea, you know that aroma therapy you do turns me on," Jinx gave him a look that said, 'Quite being a smartass, smartass.' "Oh wait. You mean the fight? Nah, I'm cool." Wally jested easily as he held the pink sorceress close to his body in a warm hug.

And the pink girl curled up purring on his lithe muscles.

Two heroes lay on the snowy knoll in perfect harmony.

"So…. You wanna do something freaky?"

"Don't make me hurt you, Wally."

"Gotcha."

_**H**_

Cyborg walked down the hallways and corridors of Titans Tower with odd commonness for what was an elaborate maze of metal, mechanics, glass window, and doors.

He hummed a little song to himself as he navigated the labyrinth with ease only a person who memorized the blueprints could posses. Of course it helped that he had them stored in a memory file and that his systems were tied into the Tower's circuitry, but that's all besides the point.

Cyborg soon came to a stop in front of a door. It was a plain door. Just like any other door in the Tower. But there was something different about this door. This door was special.

Very special indeed.

Cyborg held this door in loving regard that no other being ever held for any other door in existence. Which despite being a completely absurd statement is one hundred percent true.

A warm glow and a goofy grin play across Victor's face as he pushed open the door, stepped inside the pitch-black room, reached over blindly and turned on the lights, and looked at his baby.

"Oh man, oh man. After that long day yesterday, I could really use some relaxation." Victor spoke obsessively to the car.

"…" the T-Car responded.

Victor opened the door and put in his 'Country Grammar' CD, as he hadn't listen to it for a while, and turned up the volume.

He went off around the garage for a moment to gather his buffering tools, as his baby had a few scuffmarks on it from yesterday.

He stopped in mid-step.

…

He turned around towards his baby.

…

He swept the distance between them and bear hugged the hood of his car.

"Baby, you are so… damn… kickass!" The six foot five, four hundred pound cybernetic black man cooed like a schoolgirl.

Then, from the doorway that had been left open by the hasty Titan, "HAH! Cyborg's in love with his car!" Beast Boy shouted.

Cyborg shot up, embarrassed, "Whu-what? What'ryou doin' you little grass stain?"

"What am I doing? What are you doing, man? If I hadn't spoke up you probably would have started dry humping your damn ride, Cy!" Beast Boy said with great pleasure.

Cyborg was now embarrassed and angry, "You belligerent little snot-wad, I simply have affection for something I created! Besides, I ain't like that!"

"Uh-huh, suuure."

"Well… at least I'm not the one got caught reading Vogue!"

"Whatever…. Carhumper."

"… You motherbitch, I'm gonna kick yo' scrawny green ass!"

"AAAAH! ROBIN! CYBORG'S TRYING TO KILL ME AGAIN!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET SON! WHY YOU CRYING?"

"AAAAAHHH!"

"BOO-YAH!"

_**H**_

"OOOoooooiiiiiiiiihHIYA! CUWOW! KIYAI!" Robin let out his battle cries as he sparred with a large mechanical training android. However, today Robin was more just having fun than training. This was apparent as Robin was in a simple white training gi… and he and the android were doing a move for move recreation of the fight between Bruce Lee and Kareem Abdul Jahbar.

Starfire giggled and cheered from the sidelines of the gym, as she understood what was happening. The alien angel was also quite pleased by the Boy Wonder's purposefully exaggerated theatrics and battle cries.

A few minutes later and the fight was over, and Robin had started to sweat.

And everything looked to be OK, but it wasn't.

"Glorious, Robin!" Starfire giggled innocently, "You have most precisely and satirically reenacted the fight! … Robin?"

Robin, who hadn't spoken since the fight's abrupt end, stood still staring at the ground. He started to swayed back and forth, and then fell to the gym mat with a thud.

"R-Robin?" Starfire said with a little more concern in her voice as she flew over to his fallen body and turn him over in her lap. He didn't move. He didn't even breathe.

And Starfire was freaking out, "Robin? Robin! _Robin!_" the Tamaranean began shaking the limp body with worried fervor as her heart skipped beats at a time.

And a mischievous grin placed itself on the edges of the Boy Wonder's lips.

Starfire instantly realized what the Boy Wonder was doing, and dropped Robin onto the floor and folded her arms. "That was not funny, Robin."

The currently uncapped crusader rolled over, laughing, and smiled to Starfire, "Ah, c'mon Kori, it was just a joke! I was just messing around."

Kori closed her eyes and turned up her nose with a 'hmph'.

A moment of silence…

…

Seeing as how Kori's eyes were closed the kiss was quite unexpected.

"Mmm!" the alien princess's eyes open with a start as the now unmasked Tim stole a kiss off her lips.

She pulled away with a start, "No, Tim! I am angry with you and your inappropriate behavior." She cutely pouted and turned her sitting position so that her back was to the blue-eyed Prince of Gotham.

Tim, on hands and knees, shirtless, maskless, and sweating from the exercise, looked dumbfounded for a moment and the pouting Kori.

Her long fiery hair, her partially exposed back of soft, tan flesh. The pleasing curves hidden under her skirt.

He gave a sly smirk to the back of Kori's head as he leaned forward, put his mouth by her ear and whispered, "If you're angry with me, why are you still sitting here?"

She huffed a little and fidgeted in annoyance, "Well, Timothy…"

…

She turned and tackled him playfully in the blink of an eye. She smiled her own sly smile with sparkling green eyes as she pressed her young and well proportioned body against him, "… I guess I want to teach you a lesson in behavior myself."

The Gotham Prince stared wide-eyed at the beautiful Tamaranean Princess atop him, "Uh… teach away? Heh."

She put her leg up against his crotch slowly and pushed her chest down further onto him as she put her lips a fraction of a centimeter away from his, "Oh… I shall." she whispered, green eyes half lidded.

Tim was now sweating for another reason altogether, and he went up for a kiss.

… To have his lips met with cold, unsatisfying air.

In confusion he opened his blue eyes to see Kori up off him, and slowly floating out of the gym, "You will take me out tonight for dinner and a movie to make up for your rude behavior, yes?" she asked innocently.

Tim was in absolutely shock and awe, all he could say was, "Y-yea."

"Glorious! I shall witness you then." She giggled sweetly as she floated out of the training room, more sugary than a lollipop.

And the Boy Wonder was left smelly as locker room, hormonally disappointed, tired, with a lot of preparation to do, and just generally stupefied.

_**H**_

A handsome blonde headed young man walked down a long corridor in the tower. A slightly shaggy yet very well kept haircut bounced up and down as the young man stepped with the beat of the song blaring from his headphones.

Jericho mutely mouthed along with the lyrics.

_'And if time's elimination __Then we got nothing to lose __Please repeat the message __It's the music that we choose' _

He lowered his hand down to a faded scar on his throat and rubbed it lightly, making the small soreness in his throat ease.

The Titan clad in a white t-shirt and blue jeans came to stop in front of a door that opened with a soft _whir_.

Jericho entered the Main Room of Titans Tower.

He continued to mutely sing the chorus,

_'Get the cool! __Get the cool shoeshine! __Get the cool! __Get the cool shoeshine!' _

"Hey, Joey." Raven's sweet voice penetrated the blaring music of Gorillaz.

The tow-head turn off his CD player and set it down, the he ran over and jumped onto the couch right beside the mystic maiden, he then hand-signed, _'Hi Raven.' _

The gaze from her striking eyes lifted from the pages of her novel and onto Joey's warm features.

Ever chivalrous, or so he liked to pretend from time to time, the hazel eyed Titan hand signed, _'So, feeling better? Or are you still feeling last night's effects?'_

She blinked and replied evenly, "My head feels fine, Joseph. Though it is kind of you to ask." And her gaze returned to her book.

The air turned a little bit cooler around the area of the couch.

…

A moment of silence.

…

Joey made a bold move by putting his arm softly around Raven's shoulders.

The mystic girl tensed for just a moment and Joey thought he had made the biggest mistake of his life… but Raven soon relaxed and Joey let out a mute sigh.

Her small, pale hands delicately closed her book, much to Jericho's surprise.

And then, a defining moment in the history of the world; Raven turned her pretty head, exotic hair swishing, and she leaned up and planted a light kiss right on Joey's lips.

The air around the couch instantly turned noticeably warmer.

Joey and Raven both turned three different shades of red as their embarrassed but caring gazes met.

…

A moment of warm, flustered silence…

Raven was the first to speak, not that it really could have happened any other way, "Joey. I-I told you yesterday that, I talk with you more than I can talk to anyone else, in a way I've never talked to anyone else… and, after catering to me all day yesterday and taking care of me after we got attacked, I th-think you should know… I- I trust you Joey." Raven looked at him, a smile on her face. Eyes shining with emotion, happiness, and maybe something more.

Joey's eyes went wide, and even if blonde boy had the organs with which to speak, he wouldn't have had the ability.

Raven gave small giggle and rested her small head in the crook of his shoulder and stared out the window. The bay had it's misty frost, the bridge was covered in a light coat of fresh white snow. Some of the buildings in town already had their Christmas and Hanukah decorations up and lights dotted the city, despite it only being December twelfth.

Raven felt uncharacteristically safe, warm, and happy there in Jericho's arm, she closed her eyes and smiled, taking in the moment.

And Jericho felt sick to his stomach as the snow and cold mixed with the heat and trust of the girl leaning on him. Her words rang clearly in his head along with images of pictures hidden in his room and of meetings with his father the other night.

_"I- I trust you Joey." _

**_"First name basis? Heh, Raven… it appears Joey's old Wilson charm works even on half-demoness." _**

_"Y'know, Joey, I only talk this long to the other four founding Titans." _

**_"The main symbol in the summoning was the Mark of Scathe!" _**

_"Sorry I called you annoying, Joey." She joked, and nuzzled her head into him. _

_'And, Slade as my dad? Come on, Raven. Do think that could even be a remote possibility?'_

_"Y-your right Joey. I don't know what I was- but it was so vivid." Raven sighed._

_"I- I trust you Joey." _

Joey's pulse was beating faster than was healthy as he began to sweat. His intestines tied themselves in a painful knot and did backflips, he felt like he was going to throw up with the fear of the truth and losing Raven's trust, and maybe more.

But after the way she reacted in the study…he didn't want her to have pain like that again if he could find another way to stop this.

"Mmmm…" Raven sighed from the crook in Joey's arm. Her breaths came soft and even, she was sleeping.

Joey closed his mind's eye and put his two hazel ones on the slumbering Raven, and for a moment he too was one with the city's holiday spirit. The joviality thru-out the tower, the warmth and safety that this poor abused girl who was so brave as to fight against her own destiny.

And his love settled over him for a time, comforting him.

But in the back of his mind, the picture of a summoning circle with the mark of Scathe appeared. He pushed it away with the scent of Raven's hair.

He put his head on hers and let his line of sight wander over the pleasant curves of the sleeping mystic, and soon the warmth swam over him and the two were fast asleep.

And a scene of warm, golden silence held reign over the Main Room, as it continued to snow on the peaceful city just outside the window.

Somewhere in the crisp, snowy mourning, silver bells rang…

And the sky itself seemed to smile…

**_H _**

Just outside a warehouse in Grimm City, about 60 miles away from the Titan's City, a group of thugs talked with themselves as they stood watch over a drug deal inside the warehouse.

"And so then she said, 'Bathroom? That way!'"

"Oh man! No she didn't!"

"That's hilarious!"

"HAHAHA! That's a riot!"

Atop the warehouse a figure stood in crimson silence. Tall, muscular, red skin in black robes from the waist down, a bald head with two pointed ears, and four red glowing eyes.

He snarled loudly and jumped down in a flash of claws, fire, smoke, and blood.

And soon only one of the guards wasn't strewn across the exterior of the warehouse in little, soggy pieces.

The survivor looked at the beast in horror, "Who-what- ARE YOU!"

The creature glared at the thug with four flashing eyes of red, **_"I am a vessel for Scathe's wrath, his avatar in this world, and a harvester of human souls, like your pathetic self."_**

The drug dealers from inside the warehouse busted out of the door, guns drawn, "'Eh, what's going on out he-OH MY GOD!"

The demon turned his head with a smile, **_"Not, exactly."_** and with a flash of his four red eyes the drug dealers were consumed in hellfire and fell to the snowy ground of Grimm City as ashes.

A small wet spot formed in the crotch of the still surviving thug's pants as the avatar of Trigon brought his gaze back on the criminal, **_"I have one question for you, mortal… which way to Titans' Tower?" _**

The now sobbing thug's shaky finger rose and pointed to the west.

Trigon-incarnate snarled and sneered, then he turned back to the thug, optics flashing red and flame, ashes pouring out of his eyes, **_"Thanks for the directions… and oh, before I send you to Hell, which is where you'll be going by the way, I want to tell you one thing." _**

"Y-y-y-eee-e-ss?" The thug whimpered.

**_"I saw that episode you were talking about earlier. 'Bathroom? That way!' HAH! Those guys are genius!"_**

"Uh, y-eah. They are."

**_"Ahaha… oh well. Have fun with eternal damnation!"_** and the thug was incinerated in an instant.

And the demon leapt into the air towards the Titans Tower…

Towards Raven… and towards _him_.


	11. Reverie, Part 2

_THE END IS NEARING…_

_… _

_… _

… 

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

**_Chapter Eleven: Reverie Part Two_**

Not too much later the same day, HotSpot and Killowat were walking down the hallways of the Tower to some random room.

"And so that's how Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back is actually a parallel of the Hindu creation myth." Killowat finished explaining.

HotSpot just gave Killowat a 'Bullshit' look… which he then followed up with, "Bullshit! That's the biggest load I've ever heard man!"

Suddenly, they were interrupted as Mas and Menos darted past them, sweating and tired, but still a blur, as they past the two power-down superteens they said in weary voices, "Yo me soy cansado muy."

"Dijo bien a hermano, yo me soy cansado también."

"¡Yo no puedo creer que Bushido nos haya perseguido para un repleto nueve... jodiendo... los capítulos!"

"¡Sí, sé a hermano! El va más despacio apenas."

"¡Ah caga a hijo¡Aquí él viene ahora!"

As the two sprinted away with superspeed, they both yell simultaneously, "¡Escuche para Sublime!"

HotSpot and Killowat stared after the two speeding twins with wide eyes.

"Yo, Isaiah, you speak some Spanish, what'd they say?" Killowat asked.

"Something about being chased for nine chapters and listening to Sublime." HotSpot answered with confusion in his voice..

Just as the two friends started to walk again they were blown away by a very loudly panting, very sweaty, but very quickly sprinting Bushido who continued down the hall after his prey.

The two stared on in disbelief.

…

"So… how bout them Brokeback Titans?" HotSpot said to his electrical friend.

"HAHAHA!"

_**H**_

"Cy, you totally have to get this dude."

"Shhh! Quiet BB, don't wake them up."

The meddlesome duo were currently video-taping via Cyborg's tech the sweet serene scene of Jericho sleeping on the couch…

…with the stoic Ice Queen Raven softly slumbering on his chest.

And the two practically shat themselves laughing.

"I can't believe this is actually happening!" Cyborg giggled under his breath.

"Can you even imagine how much we could blackmail Raven for?" Beast Boy muttered under his breath.

"Can you even imagine how brutally she'd kill us?" Cyborg smiled to his green friends.

_"Can you even imagine how much she's awake?"_ came a hard cold voice from the couch.

The duo froze as if petrified by the voice, and slowly turned their heads to see a glaring Raven, eyes burning holes thru both of their faces, which now were adorned with sheepish smiles.

"Uh… Hi, Rae."

"Y-Yea. Whats up? Hehehe…"

The two continued their sheepish smiles just as Raven continued her death glare.

Cyborg slowly put his arm, the tool they'd been using to video tape the scene, down, stood up, and backed away from the dark, brooding girl.

Beast Boy followed him.

"We're real sorry Rae, and this won't ever happen again." Cyborg said slowly, fear in his eyes.

"Y-yea!" the green one added, "**Very** sorry!"

Raven glowered.

…

Beast Boy and Cyborg began to sweat.

…

"I," Raven started, "am… going… to _KILL_ you!"

But before Raven could back up the statement in any way, shape, or form, the two Titans had sprinted from the Main Room with a speed Raven didn't know either held in their name.

"Hmph." As she got up to go chase them and retrieve the video from Cyborg, she hesitated.

She glanced down at the still sleeping mute.

She kept her monotone and with a slight shake of her head said, "The boy can sleep thru anything."

A small curve on her lips.

A bending down and quick peck on his cheek.

And Raven was off to chase her voyeuristic teammates.

**_H _**

Aqualad and Speedy had stopped arguing and were currently walking briskly thru the halls of the Tower towards Speedy's room to… work out their differences.

The two were interrupted before reaching their destination by the flying fiery avatar of sweetness, "Aqualad! Speedy! Wait for me please!"

The two halted and turned towards the source of the voice that was flying up to them.

The archer was annoyed at the delay. The Atlantean gave a small grin to the pleasant girl.

"Hey, Starfire. Whats up?"

She touched down in front of the two, "Hello friends! I wish to inform you that Robin has agreed to go on a date with myself tonight!"

"That's cool, Star." Aqualad told the alien.

_"We care why?"_ Speedy mumbled so only the two boys could hear.

The long haired tempest stomped on the archer's foot, causing him pain.

The joyful alien was too saturated with delight to notice, "Yes, I wish to ask a favor of you! Would you be willing to help me find proper attire for tonight's festivities?"

…

A moment of dull silence.

…

Starfire beamed at the two expectantly.

…

Speedy grit his teeth and started tapping his foot, impatient to get to his room. Then he winced as he tapped with his recently stomped on foot.

…

Aqualad was torn. He and Roy had just made up, which meant the getting was good, but he didn't want to leave Starfire hanging, or hurt her feelings.

…

The Atlantean came up with a plan.

"Why us Starfire? Wouldn't one of the other girls be better suited for clothes shopping."

Starfire responded with big, circular green eyes filled with innocence, "But, I was told by the others that you are very in touch with your femine sides and would therefor be good at shopping for clothes. Beast Boy and Kid Flash also alluded that you two have been dress and lingerie shopping before, so I only assumed-"

"Urge... to... kill... rising." Speedy cut the Tameranean off.

"Uh, Star. You don't really need to buy new clothes for just going out on a date, do you?" Aqualad tried to weasel their way out of going again.

"Oh, the date had best be of the caliber for which I need to buy new clothes or a certain Boy Wonder may wish he had a titanium jock strap!" Starfire growled with menace.

With her wrath so apparent and imminent, it was decided it would be better to help the Tamaranean femme pick her wardrobe for the night.

**_H_**

Jericho awoke, without Raven's weight on his chest. (much to his own chagrin) However, after stumbling around with the heaviness of sleep still on him, he came to his reason.

He needed to talk with Robin, and he needed to talk with him now.

Robin, the only Titan who knew who his father was… the only Titan who could help him now. He had been weighed down and flabbergasted by the revelations of Trigon, and trying to keep Raven from worrying and fretting so much over the presence of her father's essence, to track him down before now, and he set about doing so with extreme gusto.

His head spinning with worry and his father's elaborations on the summoning after Raven passed out, he went to the most likely room to contain Robin…

The Training Room.

As he headed for it, said elaborations of his father resurfaced from his memory in more detail.

_"Do not be a fool, Joseph." Slade said in his white visage to his son on the floor, cradling the passed out Raven in his arms, "Trigon is an essence further than those pathetic Satanist could conjure with their cultish mumblings and hocus pocus."_

_The blonde hero gave his father a questioning look. _

_"They did not summon Trigon in his entirety." The white villain explained, "Trust me, if they had you'd know. They summoned a very small piece of him. What this small piece is or what it will do, I'm not exactly sure. But I can tell you this, You, I, Raven, all the Titans, and everyone else in this world… probably won't like it." _

Jericho blinked and shook the cobwebs from his mind as he came upon the training room. He peered inside in hopes of finding the caped crusader, however all he found was an empty room with a beaten training android and strangely enough… a broken window.

"…" Joey mused.

He turned and went to find Robin.

**_H_**

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_…_

On the outskirts of town, a red demon in a black robe from the waist down sprinted with unholy speed towards Titans' Tower.

As people stared, the demon merely smiled and jumped up with perverse strength into the cold, gray, winter air, body crackling with hellish power. He planted a bare, red foot from beneath his black robe on the snowy roof of a tall building were the snow melted instantly around his feet just as he hoped to the roof of another.

He continued in the fashion at a great pace towards the sparkling Tower.

He licked a black tongue over his fangs and his red, cracked lips, **"Raven…" **

_**H**_

Starfire and Aqualad were sitting in the back of Speedy's Dodge, as he drove mumblingly.

Aqualad was slightly disappointed at being torn from his time with Speedy, but he soon became of the opinion that if he was going to have to help Kori, he might as well enjoy it.

_**H**_

Cyborg and Beast Boy hid in the boys' bathroom on the top level with the pool.

"She'll never find us here! She can't dude!" Beast Boy said, panting for breath from their sprint, "She can't come in here! She doesn't have the qualifications! Am I right or am I right?"

"BB," Cyborg said cynically to his younger friend, "Do you really think her lack of male genitalia will stop her from coming in here and killing us?"

"…"

"…"

"Good point."

**_H_**

"They summoned **who!**" Robin asked incredulously.

The tow-head repeated his hand-sign. Clarifying that it wasn't actually Trigon himself, but only a small portion of him.

"Jericho, a portion, no matter how small, of Trigon is very, very bad… for the whole world." Robin said, eyemask wide, sweat already collecting on his brow.

The Titan leader had been found by Jericho in his room, oddly enough going thru clothes, and that had led up to this particular point.

The hazel-eyed hero had never seen the Boy Wonder so immediately shaken, not even by mention of his father.

"Joey" Robin looked at him sternly, "We need to tell Raven. I understand you wanting to protect her but she's probably the best chance we've got to stop this before it starts. Because once it does there may very well be no stopping it. I know you've never dealt with Trigon before, but trust me." He took a step forward and placed a gloved hand on the artist's shoulder, "He's beyond us. Beyond me, beyond you, beyond either of our fathers. The only way we can even face him is in numbers, and even that is only good for buying time. Raven is the only being on this planet with the ability to stop this menace. She needs to know."

His hazel eyes cast down to the ground with wide apprehension.

That's when a roar surpassing a thousand lions and a screech surpassing a thousand hissing vipers erupted throughout Titans' Tower, followed by a rattle.

**_H_**

The red demon was now on the bay side of town.

He sprinted thru the cold winter air on the beach and leapt into the light gray, cloudy sky with unholy power, cackling darkly.

As he soared thru the air he brought back a fist, warbling with red energy, and as he fell towards the exterior of Titans' Tower he flung the crackling punch at the structure.

**BOOM!**

Titans' Tower erupted with smoke and flying debris as the Island and nearby land rattled for a short time.

**H**

"…no, that'd be great Kori," Aqualad suggested, "You'd look great it white. It'd show off your tan."

_"It'd show off your tan, Kori. I'd like to sort out my sexual curiosities with you, Kori." _The archer mumbled beligerantly in the driver's seat to himself.

"Do you honestly believe so? Oh, how glorious-"

**BOOM!**

And the car rattled.

Speedy stepped on the brakes and the Dodge swerved around in a 180 on the empty street.

The Atlantean quickly stuck his scowling head out the window, the archer peered thru the windshield back at the dust and debris flying out of the Tower's side with a hard, grim stare.

Kori brought her hands to her mouth, wide green eyes taking in the horrific sight, "Whu-What has happened? What atrocity is this?'!"

**_H_**

Raven was walking calmly around the pool, her cold eyes peering hard thru the wall to the boy's restroom.

"I know where you are. And I'm coming in. You can run but you can't hide."

A moment of silence was all the response she got at first, but she was soon vindicated by Beast Boy's, "B-But you can't come in here! This is Man World!"

"God dammit Beast Boy, you are an idiot." came Cyborg's sigh.

A small curve came to Raven's lips, "Do you honestly believe a lack of male genitalia will stop me from going in there?"

…

"Told you Beast Boy."

"Dammit!"

The mystic girl smirked as she took a small step towards her vengeance…

… and in midstep, she felt something that froze her to the core.

Thru the petite girl's mind ran a streak of red, and echo of **_'RAGE SHALL CONSUME!' _**

The word froze and became as mute as the lips she had kissed not but a few minutes ago; all time stopped for her words as her eyes widened and her heart heightened, _"Oh God__… __ he's here." _

**BOOM! **

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_… _

_THE END IS NIGH_


	12. Shock and Awe

**(This chapter is dedicated to the incredible author and inspiration 'Post' who soon will be leaving our Teen Titans fan fictioning community, to move on to better things. He will be missed, but more importantly, he will be celebrated. Godspeed, God Bless, and Good Night, Post. You've changed everything.)**

_THE END IS NIGH!_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_**Chapter Twelve: Shock and Awe  
**_

Dust and debris filled the innards of the Tower as flames licked the Main Room as the dust settled and the rattle settled down. The Essence of Trigon walked slowly into the Main Room, framed by the gray light pouring in from the hole he'd made and the flames that were catching.

A sinister bloodlusting grin of hate made it's way upon the devil's cracked lips.

"**_The time to down this system of surrogate guardian angels has come."_** The devil laughed.

And awaited his prey to find him.

He didn't have to wait long as the door to the defiled main room opened in a sick _whi-zzztt-ah_ and Hot Spot and Killowat dashed thru the sparking door.

"What the-" Hot Spot started, he then spied the quad-eyed menace standing tall in front of them, "Who are you?"

Killowat merely frowned and charged up electricity, blue energy crackling in his flexing palms.

The Avatar of Trigon sneered and said, **_"Hehehe… All Your Base Are Belong to TRIGON!"_** and with blinding speed he leapt the length of the room and sent and black robed knee straight into the pyromancer's nose, sending him flying thru the sparking door and out into the hallway, unconscious.

"DIE!" Killowat screamed.

_ZAAAAAAAAAT!_

The sparkling tidal wave of electricity fell upon the devil's form with a piousity not found in nature. There was a bright flash, and then silence.

Killowat breathed cautiously as the light from his attack dimmed. "Whew," he let out a breath of relief. He slouched over, tired with effort of the impromptu attack.

A bald, pointy eared, four eyed, crimson head materialized over his shoulder, **_"Boo!"_**

"AAH!"

**BLAM!**

**_H_**

Standing in black Kevlar and metal mesh, Slade stood in his study, helmet off, a copper-colored eyepatch over his nonexistent right optic, his light blue eye staring out on the gray sky… which was growing darker as a thunder cloud was coming in quick.

A knock on his door.

"Come."

The door opened and one of the robots like the mechanical observer came in and with a mechanical voice spoke, "Master, the Scarlet Eagle has landed."

Slade let out a sigh; he reached down to his desk and picked up his copper and black helmet mask. He slowly slipped it over his head, fastened it and opened his eye calmly on his creation.

"Very well, give the order to move."

**_H_**

Starfire held the hands of the Archer and Atlantean as she soared up to the massive hole in the side of the Titans' Tower.

"Are you both prepared for our violent and hastened entrance into the zeroed ground?"

"Hit it." Speedy growled, peering hard thru his eyemask at the smoking orifice in their home.

"Go Starfire!" Aqualad bellowed.

"Raugh!" the alien angel gave a war cry as she dove in with her friends, eyes burning with searing green energy.

_**H**_

Robin and Jericho sprinted much faster than humans such as themselves were normally capable of down to the Main Room, where the terminal in Robin's room had said the breach was.

And both the Prince of Gotham and the Artist had a sinking feeling in their guts that they knew exactly what had breached the Tower's exterior.

Jericho's brow formed droplets of sweat as he thought, and nightmares swam thru his waking mind.

They sprinted in two blurs.

_**H**_

"_**Pathetic, surely you can offer more."**_

"SHUT UP YOU DAMNED PUNK!" Argent screamed as she leapt over Killowat's comatose body, hands glowing brightly with red energy as she gave a warcry of vengeance.

The Essence backhanded her, and she rag dolled across the tattered remains of the Main Room. Blood dribbled down her faced from her broken nose and busted lip; her pale petite body did not rise again.

Pantha, who was just getting up from an earlier hit similar to the one Argent had received, glanced at her friend's unmoving form, glowered at the Essence, and let out a growl of inhuman rage as she stampeded towards the devil with a malice not found in nature.

"_RAAAUUGH!" _Pantha let her muscled arm fly in a massive right hook towards the demon's smirking red chin.

_THWU-THWACK!_

The room reverberated from the hit, and Trigon's Avatar didn't move a millimeter.

Pantha, on the other hand…

"Oh, God dammit!" Pantha cried as she fell to her knees in pain before the Essence.

_**"Tell me little girl, did you break three knuckles, or four?"**_

Pantha lifted up her head to gaze threateningly up at her malefic opponent.

The Essence merely snickered.

Pantha's hair stood on end, her lips curled into a defiant sneer, eyes glaring so heatedly thru her mask that she was bound to catch something on fire.

With a yell, she erupted from the ground with a bone shattering left uppercut.

_WHACK!_

The room shook and the Avatar of Trigon rose in the air slightly…

… and stopped rising.

Pantha's eyes bulged from her head; the red devil had frozen in air, a foot off the ground.

He slowly floated down to the floor, popped his neck, and snarled with a sadistic happiness, **_"My turn!"_**

**THWUCK!**

_**H**_

Cyborg and Beast Boy darted out of their cowering spot in the boy's bathroom.

"What was that!" Beast Boy obligatorily spouted.

Cyborg glanced down at the screen on his arm, "There's been a breach in the Tower… right around the Main Room. Must've been big, the censors are mostly fried; but what little are left are indicating a fight.

They made to move… when they noticed Raven.

Fallen to the floor. Crumpled and wilted, like a flower crumpled in a fist and discarded via throwing on the floor. Her blue cloak seemed wrinkled and darker, spread about her fallen figure haphazardly; her limbs brought close to her petite body, making her seem absolutely miniscule and fragile. Her eyes were closed, her mouth was closed… she was comatose… save for the small rise and fall of her tiny torso, proving she was breathing.

"Raven, you OK girl?" Cyborg broke their silent shock.

"Raven? _Raven!_" Beast Boy called.

But, it was all no more than an echo of an inaudible whisper… drifting… drifting… drifting…

And in her mind there was silence, and black, and nothing… nothing… nothing, but black silence.

Then there were voices…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

A flash of gray, and a sob of a whimpering Raven's voice, _"J-J-Joeyy lied! H-He lied to us!" _a pathetic sniffle and a few more sobs, _"He lied to us, and we trusted him completely! We were close to the liar! He lied! And we gave him what he wanted! Aahhh!"_ another bout of pathetic sobbing and sniffling… a flash of gray.

And there was black.

A small twinge of blue, and a voice even, almost shocked, but very detached, "He… lied."

A flash of green, _"That damn wussy little guitar boy! I knew he was no good! No real man would lead us on like that and not have the Cajones to tell us the truth! What a fucking pansy! No good motherbitchin' … wussy little… kinda cute… erm, LITTLE. LYING. SCUMBAG!"_… a flash of green.

And there was black.

A pang of blue on the noir scene, then detached, "Liar."

A flash of yellow… and red. Almost orange in spots. The flash extended itself as if the yellow and the red were struggling against one another. Eventually there was finality with a bright flash of yellow.

"_Perhaps he had reasons. Joseph did not know the extent of our father's malefic terror. And after seeing our reaction, perhaps his emotions got the better of him and attempt… ed… to… pro…t-tect…"_ the voice of reason was waning, and red crept back into the scene like a horrible fire.

The yellow struggled and writhed, but soon became an orange hue, then more red. True finality came with a startlingly powerful flash of **_CRIMSON!_**

A baleful voice roared, **_"RRRAGGGEEE SHAAALLLL CONSUUUMMME!"_**

A bright flash of red, black, and like the base of a shotgun cracking against the back of a skull… a soft white silence cracked itself into Raven's mind… and she awoke, standing and shivering.

"Raven!" Cyborg said worriedly, holding his hands up as if wondering whether to stable the mystic girl.

Beast Boy had wide eyes of worry, but an odd voice of bravery came out of his small green body, "Raven, are you OK?" he said evenly.

Their voices registered, but the thoughts of Jericho's lying blocked out all other thoughts besides the small, but very sharp, idea that her father's presence was here. It had somehow snuck under her radar… Jericho… Jericho and his _damn LIES!_

The pool exploded in a large blast of ebony energy.

Cyborg and Beast Boy held their arms over their heads as the now steaming water came down in the form of in-door rain.

"R-Raven?" Beast Boy asked again, this time more desperate.

There was fire, red fire lining Raven's vision. And horrific visions of Jericho's demise littered her minds eye. She couldn't see it, but she knew her father's presence sensed her rage, and laughed.

She didn't care.

She had trusted Jericho, and he treated it like nothing.

He was going to pay… dearly.

The red fire grew.

Then, a soft echo, quiet but clear, rang like silver bells in the back of the mystic girl's mind. A gray developed her crimson vision, like a cooling cloud of gray snow. The voice said in a pathetic voice, _"He lied… he lied. And it hurts… because we love him." _The last phrase reverberated itself around Raven's skull, like a soft ringing in her ears. Cooling her rage. _We love him. We loved him._

_I loved him… but now…  
_

"Raven?" this time is was Cyborg, his face was set and stony as his voice.

Raven finally responded in her monotone as she icily put up her blue hood over her head, "Don't get stuck in the sky."

The girl's surrogate brothers gave her a confused look.

A flash of shining obsidian… and the girl was gone.

And the two boys were left in sick…

…gray…

…silence…

…

A rumble and a rattle shivered up the Tower to the elevated room they inhabited.

And it shook the cobwebs of confusion out of the two, "C'mon, lets go." the two said to each other at the same time.

They didn't even flinch at the coincidence; they only ran towards the exit that would take them to the Main Room.

As they fell into the shadow's of the exit, a faint crack and a muffled scream of terror and pain reached the empty, gray, wet pool room.

"_aaaahhh-_

_**H**_

_-AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" _came the bloodcurdling bellow of extreme pain as the red devil easily snapped the arm of Aqualad. Bone pierced skin, sticking out grotesquely, and blood flew profusely from the Atlantean's wound.

Underneath a pile of rubble that had once been a wall, a bruised and burnt Starfire stirred, and weekly lifted herself forward a little. Peering thru squinting eyes of pain at the horror.

"St-stop it..yo-ou bastARD!" a bruised, battered, and bleeding Speedy shakily yelled as he fought to stand up from where he had recently been planted into the ground by the red devil.

Trigon's Essence paid the Archer no heed and his focus remained on the Atlantean, **_"Hmmm, you're right. I don't think it's supposed to bend that way… maybe this way."_**

_CRRRRRRRAAACCK!_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"_

"_DAMN IT!"_ Speedy bellowed as pure adreniline caused him to stand, aim, and fire his most destructive arrow at the beast mutilating his boyfriend.

The Essence mearly held out his free palm and-

_**BOOM!**_

Dust settled, light dimmed, and the Essence stood… detached and unharmed.

Speedy's light blue eyes widened underneath his eyemask… and he promptly passed out from exhaustion.

"**_Looks like your boyfriend ha- Oh."_** The Essence started before noticing the Atlantean was already unconscious, probably from the pain.

He dropped the body to the ground with a sick _thud_.

The sound of shifting rubble caught the devil's attention, just before being blown back by a vast strike of green.

_TZAAAP!_

"**_AH! DAMMIT!"_** the Essence cursed, holding his burnt eyes.

But his red, pointed ears heard clearly a deep, woman voice, filled with fierce, righteous anger.

_"You, such foul and evil being, have invaded this home to defile our lives. You set about spoiling my Earthly brethren in a manner most hellish and unnatural. I am Koriand'r, you have harmed my family, brace for death. HYA!"_

_TZAAAP!_

**_H_**

Robin and Jericho were blurring down the halls, nearly to the hallway where they would find HotSpot's unconscious and discarded body, along with the bodies of Mas and Menos who had been struck down before they could even enter the fray, thrown thru a wall. Where they would find the current fight of the Essence vs the Titans.

Though Jericho was exceedingly speedy, Robin was far superior in fleet footedness. As the Caped Crusader turned a corner a few seconds before the Artist, the towhead was met by a large black portal in the floor, complete with warbling tendrils. A robed figure slowly ascended from the abyss, glaring with hot gray eyes at the son of Slade.

"!" he screamed mutely.

"_We need to talk."_ Raven's voice graveled menacingly as the tendrils grasped his lithe body and brought him into the abyss.

_**H**_

"_AAGGHCCAK! ACK! Eeehhh…"_ Starfire wheezed as a fuming Avatar of Trigon strangled her thin neck roughly.

"**_YOU BITCH!"_**he spat, a few spots on his skin darkened and bleeding a nasty, stygnant blood, **_"YOU ACTUALLY HURT ME! HEH… ALOW ME TO RETURN THE FAVOR! HAHAHA!"_** the devil said, eyeing the Tamaranean's body quite crudely.

Her green eyes went wide with fear and tears as a red clawed hand went to move up her tattered skirt-

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ASSMO!"

_ZWAAAA!_

"**_AAGH!"_** the Essence recoiled from the sonic blast Cyborg had sent speeding into his lower back.

Before he could respond a paw full of razor sharp bear claws came upercutting on his red chin.

_SHWLACK!_

The devil ragdolled across the Main Room as Beast Boy changed back to elf form and kneeled down to the fiery angel; sprawled out and bleeding green blood on the floor.

"STAR!" Beast Boy pleaded.

Her weak eyes met his, "Thank you both for your timely rescue, I just need a moment to recover my vigor-"

"No!" Beast Boy commanded, "You stay there."

A mechanical boot stomped by the duo, "Y'all gonna have to hang tuff, he's not stayin' down for long." Cyborg said, his sonic cannon pointing at the already risen figure of the Essence.

_**"You fools think that you can stop the Essence of Trigon?"**_

Cyborg scowled and answered hotly, "We've dealt with lackeys before, pal."

The devil smirked, **_"I'm no lackey, pathetic wretch. You see, I am no minion with orders to follow. I AM TRIGON THE TERRIBLE! Hah, I am literally a piece of the whole. My powers are diminished almost ridiculously, but my mind is a fresh as ever. And besides, this miniscule fraction of strength should still be enough to kill each and every one of you!"_**

Cyborg winced.

Starfire frowned.

Beast Boy scowled.

The Essence smirked and took a deadly step forward.

A lethal snarl came from the dark shadow of the doorway, "I beg to differ. By the time I'm done with you your ass will be even redder."

The Essence flinched and turned his head to the source of the threat…

…recieving a steel-toed jump kick right between his four eyes.

**THUD!**

_**H**_

In a nondescript section of hallway in Titans' Tower conveniently possessing dramatic lighting from the nearby window, a portal opened in the floor, and the pale and slightly shaken Jericho was hurled into the hallway by a host of black tendrils.

As the tendrils receded the dark figure of the robbed Raven rose, and the dark portal closed.

Jericho, who was regaining his color and overcoming his shaking's of fear, was frightened again as the hot gray eyes of Raven opened and glowered at him from behind her hood.

A moment of dark… brooding… absolute zero plus windchill… silence.

…

Jericho looked with wide hazel eyes at Raven.

…

Raven pierced thru Jericho's head with her intense gaze.

…

Jericho blinked.

"You little punk." Raven started, it was obvious that she was restraining a massive amount of verbal and physical terror the likes of which would have made Hitler blush.

Jericho started to handsign.

That's when the dam broke. When the anger, sadness, and bitterness built up inside for years came thru and Raven let it out in a dangerous ranting fit to outdo a drunken Irishmen.

"_Don't even give me that!"_ Raven snarled, a light fixture exploded. _"You have the nerve, the absolute unadulterated gall, to befriend me, to entertain me, to cater to me, to court me, to date me, to KISS and HOLD me for the first time in my entire LIFE, and then betray my trust and dash the best thing THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN PERILOUS EVENT I CALL LIFE! YOU BASTARD!"_

Windows shattered in sizzling ebony energy, the paint peeled off the walls accompanied by dancing black sparks.

Jericho just sat there, dumb, in complete shock and awe. Guilty.

She was right. She was right. She was right.

He was one hundred percent guilty, he didn't deserve the energy it took for him to blink.

The hot gray had receded from Raven's eyes, but her blue irises were no less piercing, "Why, Jericho? Just… why? Why the lies? Why the secrecy? Why _rape my emotions by giving me love and then blatantly stomping on my trust! Why! Did it make you feel good? Maybe you thought it was funny! You piece of shit! Is my heart some kind of fucking joke to you?"_

Jericho sat…

…mute.

_"YOU DAMN BASTARD! WHY!"_

Joey looked up with round, remorseful, hopeless eyes into Raven's infinitly more suffering ones.

And hand signed words that the mouth cannot begin to translate.

Raven's jaw slackened slightly.

That's when the wall exploded… but not due to Raven's powers.

As flame and debris sent the two Titan's sprawling, a group of machines like the mechanical observer leapt in the Tower… followed by the battle ready Slade.

_**H**_

A green velociraptor charged forward, bleeting out a cry of bloodlust.

He was silenced by a red, flaming fist.

_PHWOMB!_

Beast Boy flew back and rag dolled to the floor, his comatose body joining the litter of Titans already spread throughout. From Killowat to Kid Flash to Bushido and everyone in between. All had responded to the call, all had fought; all had been defeated in a matter of minutes, if not seconds.

"_LETS PUT SOME BASS IN YO FACE! HA!"_ A dented and scuffed Cyborg bellowed, his arm in sonic cannon form, trailing a tail of plasma. He reared back the appendage to strike in a devastating sonic punch.

The devil saw, turned to face the blow, and stuck his tongue into the sonic cannon as it flew for his face.

The force of the strike backfired on the bionic being.

_SHPLATZZZZAaahhhh…_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"_ Cyborg bellowed as he was fried by his own electricity running amok on his circuits.

"CYBORG!" Robin called as he fell to the floor, sizzling.

Starfire squinted and panted at their newest fallen comrade, holding her hurt left shoulder in the process.

The Essence turned to Robin, **_"Well, Boy Wonder, I have a question for you."_**

"Shut up!" the Prince of Gotham snapped.

_**"Who should I rape first, your girlfriend or you?"**_

"_SHUT UP!"_ Robin brought out his bo staff and sprang forward with inhuman ferocity. He thrust jabs and made sweeping passes with his bo staff and interjected with fierce kicks from his mighty legs.

The Essence dodged them all.

_SHW-SHW-SHW-SHW-SHW-SHW-SHWISH!_

_**"****To slow, Robin."**_ The Essence said as it brought back it's red foot and kick the Prince of Gotham square in the abs.

He flew back into the wall which was quickly coming to resemble swiss cheese with it's many holes and dents.

The air left his lungs, his ribs cracked, pain racked his body.

Robin tried to get up, but he faltered, heaved, and cough up a mouthful of blood.

Starfire gasped and brooded, a worry deeper than mortal showing on her face.

"**Pathetic, Robin. And here I thought you were supposed to be the pinnacle of human chivalry. The Knight in Shining armor who faces the dragon with nothing but his shield and sword and always manages to save the princess; or the cowboy who draws his gun before the black-hat or pulls the winning hand in a poker game and rides off into the sunset. The Guardian Angel for the entire city you protect, the law that keeps everyone safe, watching and stopping whomsoever attacks your precious population. Well, Robin… you've failed. Miserably. You've failed to uphold your pathetic standard of justice, which you've trained for all your life. So, in summary, you fail life, Robin. You're tower is breeched, your team is downed, and you, my friend, are about to witness your girlfriend's torture and the slow painful death of each of your unconscious teammates before I administer your own slow… painful… hellish demise."**

Robin tried to stand, tried to fight, tried to shut that god damn bastard up. But his body wouldn't react, he was an inch away from death, and this devil was going to make sure it was the longest inch he ever traveled.

"**Don't feel too bad though, Robin. After all, a wise man once said, 'Every bird must someday die.' It looks like today's your day."**

"_OR MAYHAPS IT IS YOURS! **HRAAAAAAUUGGGGHHHHA!"**_ red hair billowing in an invisible wind like a mane of molten fire, eyes aflame with emerald energy, the bronze skinned angel held her palms out and unleashed the most lethal wave of searing green righteous vengeance that had ever been reaped upon any villain.

And for a second time that day… the snowy, gray city rattled.

**BOOOOOM!**

**_H_**

Slade's one lonely eye peered down at the two, his mechanical henchmen behind him, "Ah, hello. I do hope we aren't interrupting anything-"

**BOOOOOM!**

"What the Hell?" Slade cursed as an earthquake rocked the Tower.

Time froze, Slade's optic widened in horror as the wall to the right of he and his mechanical henchmen dissolved in a flash of molten green light.

And they were hurled out of the Tower like flies, Slade's own arms flapping comically as they flew thru the gray night air, landing in the cold waters of the bay.

_PHWOOOSH!_

_FLASH!_

Green light.

…

Green light.

…

Green light.

…

And as the effect of Starfire's mammoth attack dimmed, Jericho and Raven picked themselves up slowly, pain escaping from every pore on their bodies.

But, they were beaten by a large, muscled, and red figure from Hell.

_**"So, dear daughter, is this the boy I've heard so much about?"**_

Raven's eyes widened in fear.

Joey gulped.

The Essence snarled, **_"I heard you lied to my daughter… so why don't you TAKE A SEAT!"_** in a red blur the Essence was on top of him, and put a red foot into Jericho's diaphragm, immediately being rewarded with a hack of blood erupting from the Artist's silent mouth.

Raven watched wide eyed at the spectacle.

The Essence squatted down right next to Jericho's reeling figure, grabbed his throat in one clawed bloody hand and his face in the other, and spoke to the poor hazel-eyed boy, **_"I will now bless you, mortal. I am going to show you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help myself. Heh. You believe that peace, faith, love, that these things are all powerful, everlasting. I'll show you just how wrong you are. My daughter loved you, but with your simple lie, it came crashing down. Don't you see, because of your lie, which you made because you love her, she no longer loves you! HAH! Now do you see the faulty idea of life? … What's the matter boy? Knife got your throat? HAH!"_**

The Essence turned and smiled at Raven, **_"Oh, Daughter Dearest, how would you like to help Daddy with a little chore? I guarantee you'll like it, as I've seen spectacular ideas of it floating around your thoughts lately… oh such gruesome thoughts child. You make me proud."_**

Jericho's hazel eyes widened in surreal disbelief as Raven, in a similar state of shock and awe, slowly, hypnotically, took a small, obediant step forward.

Towards her father.

_**H**_

Lying on their backs, facing the ceiling of the defiled Main Room, the fallen bodies of their friends so numerous they acted as a new carpeting or sick, bleeding cobblestones. The red and green blood leaking from their young bodies and mixing on the floor beneath them, the Songbird and the Fiery Angel lay amongst the gruesome terror.

…Together.

But, beneath the eyemask of Robin, the blue eyes of Tim were weeping, "St-starfire?"

"I am right here Robin." The young girl promised in a soft, reassuring voice. "And here is where I shall remain."

But Tim would be harder to consol, "For how long Kori?" the Prince of Gotham all but sobbed, "How long until Trigon comes back to kill and torture us? How long until some one else kills us? Cause if it's not Trigon taking us out all at once it'll be other people taking us out one by one!" he paused to take a shuddering breath, "K-Kori?"

"Yes." Her soft, even voice came, she somehow managed the strength to slip a hand behind the Boy Wonder's neck and rub it warmly… softly.

Tim sobbed, and the tears carried the eyemask off his face, slowly, "Why? Why do we do it? How come things have to be this way? How are anyone, especially kids like us, supposed to live like this? How the Hell are we supposed to fight the good fight! When things are so bleak, so hopeless, how can we live on and do the right thing, when it's not even clear what the right thing is let alone if we can do it? How can the World survive? And further more, why would we want to?"

The Tamaranean Princess took a moment to breath, and the gray clouds outside the shattered window parted and the sun shown it's lovely, pale gold. A warm wind flew into the room, easing the two teens.

Causing most of the bodies to stir, proving their life still intact.

But others….

The pale sun shown brighter.

A smooth, bronze hand gracefully pulled a bloody green glove off Tim's hand, and clasped itself around the palm lovingly.

"We carry on because we are right. Our love, the love of truth and everything, is the only Haven that people have to hold onto in the long cold nights of eternity."

"But how do you know it's even there, Kori? How do you know what's real?"

Bronze eyelids with fiery eyelashes fluttered whimsically over green eyes as the pair lay on their backs, completely drained.

"I know, Timothy, because we exist. Our love exists, our anger exists, our happiness and our sadness. If they meant nothing, we would not have them, we would not hold onto them, they would never have existed in the first place. To me, all the proof I need… lies in holding your hand, the warmth of your breath, and the beat of your heart."

An amber skinned face with a fiery silk-like mane rolled across the floor to face Tim as his black head of hair turned to face her.

"Times are always darkest just before the dawn, dear Timothy."

They blinked.

And their lips met.

Warmth…

Light…

Golden silence.

_**H**_

"**Come, Dear Raven, he lied to you, he betrayed everything he ever gave you. Everything he ever said to you was a lie. He deserves to die… he DESERVES TO BURN! SO MAKE HIM MY CHILD!"**

Raven stood in front of the broken Jericho, the Essence whispering wickedly over her shoulder into her ear.

And in her mind there was silence, and black, and nothing… nothing… nothing, but black silence.

Then there were voices…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

A flash of gray and a sob. A flash of green and a yell. A flash of yellow and a plea. A flash of red and a bellow. A flash of pink and a plead. A flash of blue, and…

…

…

…

_"__Oh, Mother. God, Tom Cruise… whoever's listening… he lied to me. He gave me everything I wanted, everything I've always guarded against, and I trusted him enough to take it. To accept him… and it turned out just as I always feared. It's the quintessential nightmare come true, and, and, and… I don't know what to do._

"_Joseph was in the wrong but, he doesn't deserve this. God I want to hold his small bleeding body and heal his pain. What? He doesn't deserve that either! It wouldn't be fair.  
_

"_Are those my two choices, kill or love? Where is justice… which is right! Oh sweet Powers that Be! I-I'm l-lost! I don't know what's right! I-I don't know what to do…"_

Things flashed before Raven's mind's eye, Joey's incessant greetings, him sticking with her at the poetry club, the glass of water, spending hours just talking, kissing, falling asleep on him, the warmth of his chest.

The lie about the concussion, the fight in the alleyway, his fath-Slade's mansion; her father being summoned.

And, even as her mind sobbed in confusion, big, wet, tears that had been restrained for years ran down her pale, immaculate face.

The Essence's four eyes widened in fear at her gaze down towards the quivering mass of a human beneath them.

And Joey's hazel eyes peared up into her blue ones, teary… sorry…

…_loving._

"_I don't know what's wrong… I don't know what's right… I don't have a reason to feel this bad and I don't have a right to feel this good…... All I know is… I just want to be happy dammit. I just want to be happy…"_

And Raven's small mouth opened, her petite body shook, and with it so did the foundations of the Earth.

The Essence stumbled back in surprise.

Jericho's innate body looked startled.

But Raven screamed a deep, silent scream as the rumble of the world grew louder.

And then there was a flash, and then there was a crack.

And then, there was nothing.

Only a thick, white silence.

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_…_


	13. Not Even A Mouse

_**Chapter Thirteen: Not Even a Mouse…**_

… _I just want to be happy dammit. I just want to be happy…"_

_And Raven's small mouth opened, her petite body shook, and with it so did the foundations of the Earth._

_The Essence stumbled back in surprise._

_Jericho's innate body looked startled._

_But Raven screamed a deep, silent scream as the rumble of the world grew louder._

_And then there was a flash, and then there was a crack._

_And then, there was only white._

_A thick, white silence._

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_Christmas Eve, 2006_

_A pair of hands placed_ a small box with simple blue wrapping paper and a purple bow by a petite, pale palm that was nursing a cup of tea.

The Ice Queen raised a brow and brought the cup of tea close to her lips, before taking a sip she uttered, "For me?"

A sincere and apologetic face nodded up and down.

She turned her small body on the bar stool in a comically cute fashion and faced him squarely.

Stoically.

Icily.

A grin.

Raven leaned across the distance between them and put a peck on the towhead's lips.

The hazel-eyed Artist grinned at the warm pale face hovering in front of his and hand signed, _'Y'know, there was no glass of water this time, but you still make me wet.'_

Raven rolled her eyes and kissed her boy more fully this time.

After a long while of tongue-tango, they separate for air.

Joey smiled dumbly and fell off his stool.

The mystic girl smiled down at his sprawled body, "You're stupid, you know that."

From the new and repaired tile floor rose Jericho's arm, the appendage ending with a thumbs up of agreement.

The sound of the girl's sweet, quiet laugh echoed around the oddly empty Main Room which seemed to be saturated by silence only broken by the occasional sounds of the young pair.

As the mute boy stood up Raven's blue eyed gaze met his, "Y'know, Joey-"

The door opened with a soft _whir_.

"There is NO way you can POSSIBLY be SERIOUS about this, Beast Boy!"

"I'm telling you Cyborg! Santa Clause is REEAAL!" the green shapeshifter whined.

The bionic teen remained indignant, "Nope, no way. You're just joking. I refuse to accept that you actually believe in Santa Clause."

But the green hero was just as stubborn, "With all the crazy magic, superspeed, and mythical stuff we've seen, talked with, and fought against it isn't that hard to believe Cyborg! Besides, who leaves all those presents labeled 'From Santa'?" he challenged his towering buddy with a suggestive raise of his green eyebrows.

Cyborg looked down with a deadpan look that said _'You are so dumb'_, which he soon followed up with, "BB, you are so dumb. For the last time, Santa… is… not… real!"

The changeling went into a flurry, "NO! I deny your reality and substitute my own!"

"Ugh," Cyborg turned from Beast Boy to the petite girl who was shooting them death glares, Cyborg didn't seem to notice them, "Raven, Robin wants the original five to go make a press statement on the conditions of the three Titans still in the hospital, along with the wishes of Happy Holidays and subliminally planting visions of sugarplums into viewers heads."

Joey shyly glanced over to the face he had been sucking only moments before.

The discontentment seeped palpably off of Raven in waves, but with a sigh she consented, "OK, lets go. I'll see you later, Joseph."

She got up and let the room with Cyborg and Beast Boy. The Artist leaned back against the counter and sighed, snatching up the un-opened present and placing it in his pocket.

…

A high-pitched voice sounding a lot like Beast Boy's came from the doorway and mocked, "I'll see you later, _Joseph!_ Hahaha!"

Joey whirled to face the entrance, but by the time his hazel gaze was cast there the culprit was already sprinting down the halls.

_**H**_

Robin and Starfire stood in the garage, Robin getting ready to mount the R-Cycle.

"So, Robin," the alien angel began, "We never did get to go on our date."

The Prince of Gotham sat down on his steel horse and picked up his helmet. He turned to face Starfire with a devilish grin, "How about that."

The bronze skinned beauty sashayed playfully up to the teen and said softly, "Perhaps we could continue such a thing tomorrow, or do you wish to give me the precipitation check."

Robin grinned roguishly as he reached up and stole a kiss off her amber lips before putting on his helmet, "Sounds like a good idea, Kori." He held out a hand, "Want a ride?"

Her green eyes looked at the hand for a moment before a innocent grin of excitement played across her joyous face, "Oh, yes please!"

She took his hand and cautiously sat down on the motorcycle.

"Now leaned against me, Star."

She did so.

"And hold on tight."

She did so.

The engine revved, the garage door opened, and the two shot out the door into the snowy city.

_**H**_

A man walked solemnly down the white halls of a hospital, a neatly wrapped present underneath his leather-jacketed arm.

In his civilian clothes he was barely recognizable, even his eyemask had been replaced by red sunglasses.

The scowl on his face seemed to have taken up permanent residence as he marched gloomily down the sterile hall.

The red haired visitor soon came to a stop in front of a closed door and turned to face it. The guard there at first made to shoo him off, but then recognized him as a Titan, "Oh, sorry buddy. I didn't quite see it was you at first. Go on in, I think he's awake. Just don't be too disappointed if he doesn't pay attention to ya, he's had girls yelling thru his window at him all day to 'marry them' and 'father their children'. Cards and flowers and presents with the same estrogenical intentions, too."

The scowl uplifted slightly as he grunted, "Too bad he doesn't swing that way."

The guard laughed good naturedly, "Oh man, that's a good one. Don't mind if I tell that one to my wife do ya? She'll get a kick outta that joke."

"Go ahead." The young man said, opening the door softly and entering with just as much rude grace.

As the soft light came in thru the window it fell on the resting for of an Atlantean teenage.

"Hey, fish lips." He grunted softly.

"Oh Robin, Yes! Right there!" Aqualad moaned comically.

Roy frowned at the boy surrounded by flowers and presents, "Not funny."

Garth sat up in his hospital with a smile on his tired face, "I thought it was hilarious."

Roy walked forward and pulled up a chair by the bed, setting the present on the table by the bed along with his red glasses, "So, how are they treating you?"

"Like a hero, strangely enough." The tempest mused sarcastically.

"You seem cheerful." Roy noted with relief.

"Yea, well… having the doctor tell me this morning that I'd make a full recovery, can go home tonight, and will still be able to swim was a pretty big upper, ya know?"

Roy had to physically restrain himself from jumping for joy, "What! That's great news Garth!"

The Atlantean just turned to him and said, "You're just happy because you like it best underwater."

Roy grinned roguishly, "You're not gonna hold it against, are you?"

"You wish."

…

A moment of content, warm silence.

"I got you a present." Roy grunted pleasantly has he placed the box on Garth's lap.

"Oh joy, let me open it, Oh wait! My arm seems to be in a cast!" Garth mocked as he held up his injured arm.

"There's no tape on it, just rip off the paper with your good arm, open the box, and stop being a wise-ass." Roy throated, light blue eyes on his prized catch.

Garth did so, he reached into the box and pulled out, "Oh look! You got me packaging paper, oh thank you so much!"

"I thought I told you to quit being a smartass!"

"You did." Garth said with a smirk as he reached in the box for the actual present, he pulled it out, and was silent.

In place of his lost sarcastic remarks a fierce blush found itself on Garth's cheeks.

"For when you get back." Roy clarified, a hungry look on his face.

Garth gulped, "Uh… y-yeah."

**_H_**

Raven silently walked the dark, moonlit hallways to her room, tired.

Not only had the press conference been exceptionally hectic and time consuming, the mayor had wanted to talk with them about collateral damage costs or something equally pointless. Raven was tired and needed to sleep and meditate so she hadn't really listened.

It was around midnight, it was either already Christmas or really close.

So tired was the dainty demoness that she soon bumped into a soft, muscular chest.

She looked up, perplexed and eyes wide for just a moment.

A mute wave.

"Joey." She smiled tiredly, "What is-"

He took her curved body in his arms and tasted her mouth.

Caught by surprise, but now fully awake, she returned the sentiment.

…

A light fixture exploded in crackling black energy, causing Joey to jump in surprise.

Raven looked up, face slightly sheepish, "I… haven't meditated in a while."

Jericho nodded and hand signed something to her.

"Why? I'm tired Joseph, you can show me in the morning."

The Artist took the small girl by the shoulders and turned her around.

Arm around her shoulder, Joey lead her somewhere, smiling.

_**H**_

A thick… white silence on the black of night… of snow falling whimsically outside the warm window, recently replaced, of the Main Room.

And it wasn't necessarily warmed by the makeshift fireplace…

_Thud!_

"Mmmm, Wally!"

"Hey, baby. You're awful frisky!"

"Well, you _did_ just get back from the hospital, finally. I've missed you." The witch made a lung for his lips.

"OH! Watch the ribs girl." He winced.

She smirked mischievously down at him from her position on top of him.

"I don't know if I like that look."

She made her move, pushing her lips on his and her hand down his-

"HEY! You two, quit sucking face and get to bed. Santa won't come if you're up doing the dirty." Cyborg interrupted.

The pair looked at the android with a look that said 'double you tee eff?'

The bionic being stared blankly at the two, "Just get to bed and don't question my sexy ways."

The two blinked, looked at each other, got up and headed for the door.

Cyborg smiled contentedly and as he tip toed towards the garage.

"You realize, we're just going to continue this in one of our rooms."

"GIT!"

_**H**_

Raven sat dazedly in the passenger seat of Jericho's personal mode of transportation… the Mustang.

"Joey, where are we going?" she monotoned tiredly, almost whining.

Joey took both hands and signed (leaving the wheel quite bare), _'Just be patient Raven. You'll be glad once we're there.'_

Raven's blue head started to nod from the invisible weight on her eyelids, "Uh huh…" that's when she saw it… A small, familiar poetry cafe. Lights on way after hours and during a holiday.

Joey parked the car in the lot, opened her door, and led her to the front of the building.

She looked surprised at Jericho, "Joey, this place ought to be closed. Whu-what is going on?"

He looked back warmly and signed, _'Just try not to spill the water.'_

As they entered a small group of people turned and smiled, clapped, or greeted them. Raven recognized them as the best poets and musicians to come thru the place. They all got up to talk with Raven.

They were unlike regular fans, they were appreciative but not obsessed, they were happy but they were normal, they were treating her like a respected peer, not as an idol.

The blue eyed girl smiled.

Off in a dark corner that Raven would never notice sat two figures. A young girl smiling from ear to ear and a large, muscular man, arms crossed and a grin on his face.

Both had silvery white hair, and where looking at Jericho.

He waved, and so did they.

"_How about a poem, Raven?"_ asked a voice calmly.

"_Yea, that'd be great."_

"_Go for it Raven."_

Soon the whole cafe was in agreement, but Raven was flustered.

"Guys, I'm glad you want to hear something but, I'm still kinda shell-shocked from the day. I wouldn't know what to do."

A warm hand belonging to Joey gently turned Raven's face to his own, he winked and led her on stage.

"Joey, what are you doing?" she hissed quietly at him when no one was near.

He mouthed to her, _'Relax.'_

"But-"

Raven didn't get a chance to finish as they were on the stage. The faces of the crowd peering at them curiously. Raven wasn't embarrassed or afraid. She had no reason to be. She just felt dumb for not having any poetry for them… and angry at Joey for bringing her up here.

'_Speaking of that boy, where is he?'_ she looked around, and found him seated at a piano she had not noticed until then.

He looked over and wink and eye mischievously as he started to play.

At first Raven was still perplexed, but she soon recognized the tune as a favorite of hers.

She smiled understandingly at the grinning Joey.

Across the old, dusty stage lightened by the should-have-been-closed lights of the cafe the mystic girl walked slowly up to the piano, removed her cloak, and sat her small, curvaceous form upon the sleek, black instrument as her lover's fingers caused the chiming music to reverberate around the small shop.

She faced the small crowd with a contented smile on her lips, took a breath, opened her mouth, and softly sang…

_**H**_

Cyborg walked softly out of the elevator into the Main Room which was cloaked in a soft blanket of black silence. The only illumination coming from the large, benevolent Christmas Tree's myriad of colored lights.

Over the teen's shoulder was a large bag filled with presents for the other Titans, he grinned mischievously, bit his tongue, and snuck over to the tree to place the presents.

That's exactly when he noticed a group of presents already under the formerly blank tree. It was Titan tradition for the Titans to bring their gifts for others to the tree in the morning, but Cyborg had always put gifts from 'Santa' under the tree every year. It was the subject of in-house conspiracy for the Titans as to who was the benevolent culprit, but Cyborg had never encountered this situation before.

He gently but swiftly set down his bag and darted over to inspect the gifts.

One for each of them except the ones that were in the hospital. He glanced at the tags, _"From: Santa Clause?"_ Cyborg wondered under his breath disbelievingly.

Then from the roof there arose such a clatter, Cyborg jumped to the window to see what was the matter.

His jaw dropped, his eyes widened in child-like wonder as he pressed his face and hands to the recently replaced glass of the windows as the silhouette of a sleigh drawn by eight beasts of burden flew away from the tower, across the skyline of the night-time city, and over the moonlit horizon.

Long after losing sight of the enigma, the hardcore hero Victor Stone whimpered in a child like voice to the sweet silent nothings of the room, "...S-Santa?"

_**H**_

It was early morning in Titans' Tower, and the still rising sun shone its rays of light thru the white of the snowy morning onto the scene of Joseph Wilson sleeping peacefully sprawled upon the couch, and the darling Raven again curled into his chest in a soft, warm, golden silence.

"Looks like the Ice Queen's melted." Came the overly loud remark from a certain Fastest Teen Alive.

He was met by many '_shhh'_s and hisses and a few pairs of thrown socks as the slumbering pair stirred into awakened states…

… to find the entirety of the pajama clad Titans not in the hospital staring right at them, giggling and smiling.

Jericho's cheeks turned slightly pink, while Raven's turned thirteen different shades of red. The melted Ice Queen propped herself up on Joey's chest and opened her mouth, but closed it as she had no rebuttal on hand.

Joey smiled, half lidded hazel eyes sparkling, grabbed Raven in a hug, pulled her down on him, and put their lips together lightly.

The female Titans looked on and cooed.

The male Titans glanced away and felt uncomfortable.

"Anyway!" Beast Boy said, jumping thru the crowd and landing on top of the couch, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

"We took the liberty of putting your presents under the tree while you were, well… sleeping together." Robin calmly said with a smirk, his eyemask discarded for just the morning.

The female Titans gave him playful dirty looks.

The male Titans laughed their approval.

"But Robin, were we not also asleep together last night after we returned from our public duty?" said the 'innocently' curious Starfire, holding her gorka plushie to her person, looking at Robin whose arm was currently wrapped around her frame.

All Titans regardless of gender laughed…

Robin blushed slightly, but did not give in to embarrassment, "What're we waiting for, lets get to the presents!"

"YEAH!" came the uproar of approval from the Titans.

They turned the couch to face the tree and brought chairs and other furniture to encircle the tree. The custom was to go one at a time thru the roster and give one gift to a person, repeating until everyone had received a gift from everyone… after that it was a free for all.

"So, who gets to go first?" Speedy asked, Aqualad around his arm.

A green changeling jumped up and down, waving his arms in the air, "Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!"

Robin smiled, "Alright, Beast Boy!"

The shapeshifter stole a wink at Cyborg and retrieved a rectangular package from underneath the tree.

"OK," he said to the sleepy but excited audience, "I know this is a slight breech of etiquette, but I think that is justified by the before present opening entertainment."

Giggles.

Raven frowned at him, but didn't make any move away from Joey who she was still sitting with on the couch.

With a grin that could hardly be contained on his face he approached the two, "Jericho, Raven. Here's a _very_ special gift from me and Cy. Merry Christmas."

As soon as the gift was out of his hands the imp dove behind Cyborg as if searching for cover.

The pair looked at each other and then tore off the paper.

It was a book, a yellow book.

The other Titans looked on curiously.

The Title? _'How to Admit You Want to Copulate All Night, Every Night: For Dummies!'_

Laughter erupted across the Main Room as Raven began an assault on the green changeling.

_**H**_

"Hey Marcus! I shot you!" shouted a pajama clad little brown haired, blue eyed boy, weilding a futuristic NERF gun.

"Nu uh Clayton! You missed!" shouted an identicle pajama clad little brown haired, blue eyed boy, with a similar gun.

"Hey, how about you two play nice?" Terra's foster Mother said to her two sons.

"Let them be, Rebecca." came the father's voice, he was next to her on an old couch, their younger daughter asleep in his arms.

"Yea, Mom." Tara said from across the modest living room, wrapping paper strewn across the floor in the universal scene of Christmas morning, "They are little boys after all."

"Hey, we're not little!" Clayton yelled from the kitchen, forgetting their game of Spartan Vs. Covenant.

"Yea Tara! We're both ten and a half!" Marcus backed his twin brother up.

Tara smiled and opened her mouth to make a smart remark, but she was interrupted the ringing doorbell.

The Father moved to get up, but remember the weight of his young daughter sleeping on his lap.

The blonde girl got up good naturedly, "I got it Dad."

She walked smiling to the door, and opened it to the cold outside. The visitor was greeted by the small blonde girl and by the smell of Christmas cookies baking.

"Hey, Tara." Came the voice.

Tara stared wide eyed, "B-Beast Boy? What are you doing here?" suddenly she realized what she had said and, blushing, made to correct herself, "Erm, I mean, don't you have someplace better to be? NO! That's not what I mean, er…"

Garfield, in civilian clothes, smiled calmly to the girl, gazing on her with sparkling eyes, "Tara, its ok. And, no, I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd rather be."

"Whose there, Dear?" Rebecca asked as she peered around the corner and spied the Titan outside her door.

"AAAH! Mr. Beast Boy! … WHY ARE YOU STANDING OUT IN THE COLD!" the large woman shrieked with motherly concern, "Tara, get that boy in here this instant before he catches his death of cold!"

After he was seated by Tara on the couch, both his parents had said high and made small talk before mysteriously finding other things to do about the house.

So in effect, Gar and Tara were alone…

… with Tara's foster siblings, of course.

"Are you really the Teen Titan's Beast Boy?" Asked Marcus with childhood skepticism.

"Marcus! Be nice." Tara barked, embarrassed.

Gar smiled, "Well, I am green, and you already saw me turned into a monkey."

It was Clayton's turn, "Are you really getting married to Raven like the tabloids say?"

Gar turned to Tara, who was staring at him with a questioning look, "No, Raven's actually with Jericho. Besides, I've got somebody else, a girl I wouldn't give up for the world."

Tara blushed brightly.

Their hands met each other's on the couch.

Marcus and Clayton smirked to each other and ran off laughing.

Tara's little foster sister Megan stared at the two, "Beast Boy, will you be my boyfriend?"

The changeling was taken back by the question, Tara giggled and winked at him.

He blinked, and smirked at the little five year old, "Yea, I'd be honored."

The little girl smiled and squealed childishly and ran off to tell her mother.

Now, the two were alone.

"Wow, so you're taken," Tara said airily sarcastic, "Too bad."

"Is it?" he whispered hoarsely into her ear.

She stared at him.

They brought their lips together. Their arms wrapped around each other's bodies and the pair of starcrossed lovers fell onto the couch.

Helplessly in love, and together at last.

_**H**_

Later on in the morning after Beast Boy had mysteriously left without saying where he was going, when all the presents had been opened, many had fallen asleep again due to their early arising and massive piles of wrapping paper littered the floor along with piles of presents, Joey and Raven where curled up again.

He tapped her shoulder.

Raven stirred and looked at him with tired eyes, "Hn?"

He held up the small box from yesterday.

"Oh," she said in recognition, "I forgot about this." She grabbed it.

The paper was soon expelled to reveal a velvet black jewelry box, she opened it and the reflected shining of the jewelry lit up her face as she gave a small gasp of surprise.

"Joey," Raven mumbled to her biological pillow, "You shouldn't have. We don't get payed enough for you to afford this."

In response, Joey held up his right hand in a fist, and then extended his pointer finger, his pinky, and his thumb.

A universal symbol for the deaf and mute.

_'I love you.'_

Eyes wide and bodies warm, the two began to practice their new habit of tongue wrestling.

From across the paper strewn battle ground of Christmas morning, Starfire gazed silently smiling at the two from the love seat her and sleeping Robin where sharing.

She shifted her fiery silk-like mane to face the sun outside the snow-speckled window and mumbled emotionally, "K'uttchu negal."

_THE END (?)_

_(close curtains)_

_…_

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_Saint H's Fic Ended Author's Notes:_

_Well readers, that's the end of the actual story, but it won't be the last chapter of the fic. There will be one more chapter dedicated to the story and it's readers. It will have a small epilogue for less used characters, a dedication to my wonderful readers (that's you) author comments, and character opinions… and maybe a little sneak peak at my next story 'Superboy'_

_Be sure to check it out. And I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I absolutely loved writing it for you all._

_Good Night._


	14. Textual Intoxicant Epilogue

It was 9:30 P.M.

Robin's Room…

Empty, the lights were off. It was clean, neat, much different from the days of Slade.

Punching bags, a rack of bo staves… it was the Boy Wonder's room after all.

It was a peaceful, quite scene.

_Thump!_

From the door.

A pair of mumbling voice.

_Thud!_

A male voice rose in anger.

A female sigh.

_WHA-ACK!_

A dent in the door.

…

_Whir._

"Ah, there we go!" Robin said, Starfire up in his arms. He now set the princess down.

"Oh Robin, it was wonderful!" she spun for joy, long white dress twirling about he long legs. It showed off her tan, "Tonight you have made me feel as if I where the pretties female in all of Drenthax!"

Casting his eyemask to the floor and taking off his jacket and other unneeded extremities to his tuxedo, Robin spoke smoothly, "That had nothing to do with me. I've never been to Drenthax, but I'm positive you're more gorgeous than anyone there."

"Ohh, Robin."

The two came together.

They kissed.

_Thud._

"Hehehe!"

"Uh Oh, Kori! We _accidentally_ fell on the bed! How about that?"

"Hehehe, yes. _Accidentally _indeed. Just as you are accidentally on my grebnacks."

"No, the grebnack grabbing is intentional."

"Hahaha!"

"What? What's funny?"

"Robin, I didn't think you'd take that off so soon."

"Then you don't know me as well as you thought… you… Kori… what is this?"

"It is edible lingerie from the Warehouse of Jim's. Beast Boy and Cyborg were right when they said Jim's had by far the best price."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"What flavor?"

"Strawberry."

"That's my girl!"

"Hehehe! Ow! Timothy, not so hard!"

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_**Statistics for Saint H:**_

_**Favorites List: 57**_

_**Alert Lists: 45**_

_**Statistics for The Perils of Titan Dating:**_

_**Chapters: 13 plus epilogue**_

_**Words(minus epilogue): 33,337**_

_**Pages: 119**_

_**Favorites Lists: 21**_

_**Alert Lists: 19**_

_**C2s: 1 (my own, but I didn't put it in there!)**_

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A dark set with a single luxury chair set up on stage, facing the camera. The lights are dim and people are running back and forth in the background.

"_Quick! Raven, how's my makeup?"_ a voice asked hurriedly.

"_Conner, you're not wearing any makeup. And even if you were, why would you be asking me?"_ a dull voice droned.

"_Mostly because you're the person standing right next me. No other reason really."_

A non-descript voice came out of nowhere, _"And we're on in 5,"_

"_Oh shit! What if they don't like me? What if they say I'm lame? What if I'm a flop?"_

"_4,"_

"_Calm down. Besides, since when were you all nervous? I thought you were the Boy of Steel."_

"_3,"_

"_Yeah, well, this is a big chance to get some word out for my story, if I don't do well it might end up like other great unknowns! … Oh well. How about a kiss for good luck?"_

"_You… wish…"_

"_2,"_

…

The lights come on to reveal Superboy, in jeans and a black shirt bearing a red 'Superman' insignia with red Knoxville shades.

He flashes a winning smile, "Hey readers. Whats hangin'? I'm Superboy, the fastest, the strongest, and the just plain baddest Titan around. Now, most of you are saying, 'Whoa, since when are you a Titan?' Since last Monday son! From the maker of this fabulous story you all loved has come _MY_ story. A _BETTER_ story. The _BEST_ story _EVER_!"

A stagehand steps up next to Superboy and whispers something in his ear.

"What? Why?"

"I don't know, H just said not to sound so high and mighty."

"Ugh…" Superboy flicks a wrist and sends the stagehand flying.

"As I was saying in my oh-so-sexy ways, I'm here to be the interviewer for the Titans about their experiences in and opinions of _The Perils of Titan Dating_. So, get ready to laugh, get ready to cry because you're laughing so hard. And get ready to laugh so hard the hair falls right off you genit-"

"_AHEM!"_ comes a loud voice from off stage.

Superboy mumbles something inaudible and makes a rude gesture directed off screen.

"And, most importantly, get ready to say goodbye to sexy, badass me and hello to the rest of the Titans. Ok, First Question!

**What do you think about the plot of TPoTD?"**

_Cyborg:_

"Quite frankly, the plot is bogus and just thrown together." Cyborg says, sitting in a chair identical to Superboys… so it's obviously too small, "I mean, it starts out as a date, goes to a street fight, a creepy ass mansion, to demons nearly killing us, to fucking Christmas Eve!"

_Robin:_

"… I liked the epilogue." Tim, in civilian garb, flashes a smile and two thumbs up.

_Killowat:_

"Yea, you would like the epilogue. Personally, I thought this was a piece of shit. I barely got ANY screen time. And I'm the best character."

_Cyborg:_

"Hey man, at least you got a scene in the fight against the Essence. Bushido and them didn't get nothing."

_Bushido:_

"…"

_Speedy:_

"I thought the plot was OK. Not the greatest. I'm not really sure why H felt the need to make Cheshire show up. But I'm grateful that he did, oh yes." Speedy bites his lower lip and dry humps the air, "There's nothing like Warehouse loving, baby."

_Starfire:_

"While the plot was most nonsensical, and I was very sluttish, I do believe that the story was driven more by emotions and irreverent humor as opposed to a normal plot."

_Raven:_

"Well, in the cornucopia of crap that fanfiction is, I'm sure this plot seems fabulous by comparison."

"What did you think of the use of Jericho? Both in relation to his main character status, and as character himself?"

_Beast Boy:_

"Well, one thing is definitely out of place. We never saw him play his guitar! What the hell? And some dinky little piano shit doesn't make up for it!"

_Jericho:_

"…" he pulls out his acoustic and tears into a riff of 'What I Got'.

_Beast Boy:_

"That's more like it!"

_HotSpot:_

"I dunno, Jericho seemed kinda… slow and nerdy to me. I mean, if I was the main character. Dayamn! Raven would been swooning in the first SCENE man."

_Argent:_

"Well, technically, Raven _was_ reacting nicely to Jericho's come-ons in the first scene. It's just that they weren't very pronounced."

_HotSpot:_

"Hence the word 'swooning.' You're British, look it up."

_Robin:_

"My main thing was, why didn't he tell me sooner Trigon's 'Essence' or whatever gay thing that was, was coming over?"

_Aqualad:_

"Yea, that was a real big boo-boo with a real flimsy excuse. 'He wanted to protect Raven's feelings'? Whatever man! H just wanted some suspense and he was too much of a loser to get it properly."

"**What do you think of the writing style?"**

_Raven:_

"Stolen from Post."

_Beast Boy:_

"It's Post's writing style, except minus the good and plus the suck, right?"

_Jinx:_

"Naw, H didn't steal everything. I wasn't a lesbian, and my training bra never came out once.

_Kid Flash:_

"Not on camera, anyway." Kid Flash smiles, puts his hand over his mouth and lifts one of Jinx's training bra's out from the seat of the chair.

_Jinx:_

"Kila dammit!" (heh.. Meiriona style)

_Cyborg:_

"Dawg, it isn't so much that H stole the writing style. It's H tried to steal the writing style and failed miserably!"

_Kid Flash:_

"Man, H stole his writing style like Compton stole rap from the East Coast."

_Robin:_

"I dunno guys. There are a few homage's and similarities to other, better writers. But where are you getting all this 'Post' stuff from?"

_Beast Boy:_

"Uh, hello? SMASH!"

_Cyborg:_

"BOOM!"

_Starfire:_

"Hehehe… TZAA!"

_Speedy:_

"BANG!"

_Tara:_

"Heh…PHOOSH!

_Aqualad:_

"Oooh, here's one that feels close to him, CRAAA-AAA-AACK!" Aqualad nods, "Yea, that's my arm bitches."

_Kid Flash:_

"Shotgun to the back of Raven's skull, CRACK! Raven throwing up on the floor in Slade's study, BLAAAW! The sound of Raven and Jericho 'talking' just after the end of chapter 13, THU-THUNK! THU-UNK! THU-THUNK!"

_Raven:_

"… the sound of Kid Flash dying a slow and painful death by disembowelment. Well, let me show you."

_Kid Flash:_

"AH! Run away!" Kid Flash blurs off screen.

_Jinx:_

"WHACK!"

"AAH!"

"Wally? What's going on?"

"Raven's trying to kill me!"

Jinx raises a brow, "Do you deserve it?"

Kid Flash puts on his best innocent face, "Aw, c'mon, Baby!"

Tendrils of black slither in slowly from off screen.

Jinx gasps and grabs Kid Flash, throwing her into the chair with her, "No! Bad Raven! My Wally!"

_Raven:_

"I wasn't gonna kill him… much."

"**What was your favorite scene in the whole story?"**

_Cyborg:_

"Hehehe… do you even hafta ask?"

_Raven leaned across the small, small table, grasped his large hands with her small ones, closed her eyes and slowly leaned in for a kiss._

_Joey closed his eyes and prepared to receive it when-_

"_AFLAC!"

* * *

_

_Raven leaned across the small, small table, grasped his large hands with her small ones, closed her eyes and slowly leaned in for a kiss._

_Joey closed his eyes and prepared to receive it when-_

_BRRIII-IING!_

_Raven's eyes snapped open, "Joey, what is that?"_

_BRRIII-IIING!_

_Joey smiled sheepishly and pulled out his cell phone. He looks up._

"_Sorry, I gotta take his. Hello? Yea, I'm at the café with Raven."_

_Raven stared in disbelief as Jericho talked on the phone.

* * *

_

_Raven leaned across the small, small table, grasped his large hands with her small ones, closed her eyes and slowly leaned in for a kiss._

_Joey closed his eyes and prepared to receive it when-_

"_FIRE! OMIGOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" one of the waitresses came out of the kitchen sprinting._

_Jinx and Kid Flash:_

"Well if you don't count one of our make out sessions." Jinx started.

"Then definitely the scene where the mechanical observer comes to beat that thug after Jericho get's done messing up the Kapulit boys!"

_He pressed the cold barrel of the shotgun against Raven's pale neck, "Watch it, Titan." he said menacingly._

_Jericho stopped, his eyes went halfway back to normal. His heart burned with rage but his mind was flooded with sorrow and worry…_

_BRRIII-IING!_

_Jericho pulls out his cell, "Hello? Oh hey Kole. No, I'm not doing anything important. Yea, pizza sounds great!"_

_Tibolt:_

The thug rubs his jaw, "That really hurt."

_Herald:_

"Definitely whenever I found out about Roy and Garth's… preferences. That was so shocking in and of itself it was almost surreal."

Speedy and Aqualad both enter from either sides of the screen. "It was surreal because you loved seeing us forced on each other, queer!" Speedy flips over the chair.

"Hey bitch!" Herald screams.

Aqualad steals his wallet while he's distracted with Speedy.

"Yo! My wallet!"

"SCATTER!" Speedy and Aqualad yell as they dart off screen.

_Just as Mal was leaving the party, quite bummed out because he has no lady-skills, he turned and saw the two, very male, Titans sharing a very… intense moment._

_Shocked by the discovery and nervous with realization, Mal did what anybody with the responsibility, will power, and grace required to be a superhero would have done, "Hey, you guys got room in there for me?"

* * *

_

_Just as Mal was leaving the party, quite bummed out because he has no lady-skills, he turned and saw the two, very male, Titans sharing a very… intense moment._

_Shocked by the discovery and nervous with realization, Mal did what anybody with the responsibility, will power, and grace required to be a superhero would have done, "Just… do me a favor and wear a condom."

* * *

_

_Just as Mal was leaving the party, quite bummed out because he has no lady-skills, he turned and saw the two, very male, Titans sharing a very… intense moment._

_Shocked by the discovery and nervous with realization, Mal did what anybody with the responsibility, will power, and grace required to be a superhero would have done, "Ewww! You guys don't do it in the showers do you?"_

_Tara:_

"I thought it was so sweet whenever Garfy–kins was lying by me in the back of the schoolyard after saving my life and he was just hugging me and musing about how I was what made his existence worth wile thru poetic metaphor."

_Garfield acted on impulse; he turned on his side and grabbed her in his arms, hugging her against his chest. He put his chin on her crown and stroked her hair as she shivered against his green form._

"_Shhhhhh…. It's ok Tara, I Tivo-ed the new episode of Grey's Anatomy. You won't miss it."

* * *

_

_Garfield acted on impulse; he turned on his side and grabbed her in his arms, hugging her against his chest. He put his chin on her crown and stroked her hair as she shivered against his green form._

"_Shhhhhh…. It's ok Tara, we can get you this shampoo at the pharmacy and they'll go away before you know it."_

_Argent:_

"Aaahhh, that's so cute!"

_Pantha:_

"I wish I had a caring sensitive man like that."

_Jinx and Kid Flash:_

"Oh, throw up!"

"Wally!" Jinx smacks him.

_Cyborg:_

"… Garfy-kins? HAHAHA!"

_Beast Boy:_

"Hey! Shut up! You're just jealous because you didn't get any this story!"

_Jinx and Kid Flash:_

"Uh oh Cy, you just got burned by Garfy-kins!"

_Cyborg:_

"HAH!"

_Garfy-kins:_

"For the last time. My name is not 'GARFY-KINS!'"

_Raven:_

"That's not what you're name says… Garfy-kins." Raven smirks ever so slightly.

_Garfy-kins:_

"Whu- grrrr! Dammit."

Tara walks in from off screen, "Awww! Does my wittle Garfy-kins need a hug?"

_Robin:_

"No, he needs his masculinity back." Robin shakes his head, "I'm embarrassed for the guy."

_Starfire:_

"Do not worry what insensitive others might say, Beast Boy. I believe Tara's pet name of 'Garfy-kins' is quite adorable!"

_Beast Boy and Tara:_

"Gee, that's Star. I'm so less emasculated now."

Tara kisses him on the cheek, "But you're cute when your emasculated!"

_Bushido:_

"Just like Shinji Ikari…"

_Raven:_

"He- he spoke!"

_HotSpot:_

"I thought he took a vow of silence or something."

_Robin:_

"That's the first time I've ever heard him speak! Amazing!"

Speedy runs in from off screen, "Yea, but who the hell is Shinji Ikari? Uh, gotta run!"

Speedy runs off the other side of the screen just as Herald pops in from where Speedy came, "Yo Robin, did you see that Arrow-Queer come by here?"

Robin points to the other side of the screen, "That way."

Herald nods, "Thanks… nice blue eyes by the way." Herald said, commenting on Robin's masklessness.

"**Wow. That got outta hand, why aren't things ever that wild in my story?"**

_Cyborg:_

"Because… you're in it?"

The Kid Flash zooms in from off screen, "Haha! Nice! High five!"

"Yea!"

The two raise their hands when Superboy blurs in from opposite screen.

Kid Flash and Cyborg's eyes widen, "Uh Oh…"

"Ready for a beat down?" Superboy says, his blue eyes glaring down over his red sunglasses.

"_Superboy get back to work, dammit!"_ a voice comes from offscreen.

Superboy grumbles and shuffles his feet offscreen.

…

Cyborg and Kid Flash smile at each other and high five.

"**OK! Now, about the roma-"**

_Rose:_

"Wait! I didn't get to say my favorite scene yet!"

"**What? Ugh, fine!"**

_Rose:_

The silver haired girl smiles, "My favorite scene was whenever I tricked Raven into admitting she thought Joey was cute!"

"_I dunno, maybe you should describe him more. I see a lot of people in a day."_

_Raven grumbled._

"_Listen you little… grrr… He had hazel eyes, broad shoulders."_

_Rose gazed._

_Raven's eyes narrowed, "Side-burns, kinda quiet."_

"_Oh!" Rose said, "I may know who you're talking about." The girl with the silver mane enunciated slyly. "Was this boy, handsome?"_

_Raven again rubbed her temples trying to fight off the migraine that was inevitably emerging, "If you must know, Hells yea. And his tool is MASSIVE!"_

_Rose's eyes widen in shock, "I DID NOT NEED TO HEAR THAT!"_

"**No more interruptions! OK, what did everyone think of the romance?"**

_Jericho:_

"…" he flashes a winning smile with two thumbs up.

_Robin:_

"There's nothing quite like getting seduced on a gym mat."

_Starfire:_

She sighs, "What am I able to say? Sweaty, well muscled earth boys are alluring."

_Jinx and Kid Flash:_

"Yes we are!" Kid Flash flexes, "Tell me, do you have tickets, to the gun show?" he kisses his biceps.

Jinx rolls her eyes, "Please. Your just skinny, not muscled. The thing that makes you worth wile is that you can vibrate. Hehehe."

Kid Flash blushes.

_HotSpot:_

"Dude, I didn't need to hear that."

_Slade:_

"Why is my daughter being exposed to this?"

_Rose:_

"Daddy! It's OK! I learned all about sex from school because you would never talk about the birds and bees with me like Mommy wou-"

_Slade:_

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Rose! There are some things a man should never have to hear! Now lets go, we're leaving."

_Rose:_

"But Daaa-aaaddy!"

Slade comes from off screen and grabs her, bounding off back into the shadows like he came.

_Cyborg:_

"How about that Garfy/Tara action in thirteen? That was cool."

_They brought their lips together. Their arms wrapped around each other's bodies and the pair of starcrossed lovers fell onto the couch._

"_What the hell?" Tara's foster dad walks into the room with a shotgun.

* * *

_

_They brought their lips together. Their arms wrapped around each other's bodies and the pair of starcrossed lovers fell onto the couch._

"_So… horse or donkey?"_

"_Hmmm…elephant!"_

_Beast Boy and Tara:_

"Ummm…. Ew."

"**OK, any questions for the Author?"**

_BumbleBee:_

"Yea, I got a question for the author…. WHERE THE BLUE FUCK WAS I? I'm a recurring character with importance to the series… and you're so busy writing Killowat and Mas y Menos to put me in the damn story! Up yours Saint Homo!"

_Mas y Menos:_

"Ah, esta dama está enojada." Mas said, wide eyed after Bumblebee's display.

"Bien lectores, nosotros querríamos decir gracias."

"Sí. Gracias para reír, el llanto, arrullar, y atemorizar en el cuento."

"Pero recuerda, los penes son mucho más masivos que el suyos."

"¡CHUPELO!"

_The Essence:_

"**Yea, I got a question. Why are you so mean to me? I'm human just like you! … Well… Oh shit the bed! I'll eat you!"**

_Argent:_

"Why did it have to end so soon?"

_Raven:_

"Why do authors, yourself included, feel the need to place me in a romantic relationship when it's obvious I want to take part in nothing of the sort?"

_Cyborg:_

"How come I didn't get any women in this story?"

_Robin:_

"… How do you know me so well?"

_Starfire:_

"… What did Roy give to Garth?"

_Speedy:_

"Well Starfire, it was a big, fat, vibrating, massive, twirling, light-up, coin operated boy."

_Beast Boy and Tara:_

"We seriously didn't need to hear that." Beast Boy deadpanned.

Tara is covering up her ears and humming a song to herself still.

_Speedy:_

"Oh shut up, Garfy-kins."

_Kid Flash:_

"I got a question. What does 'K'uttchu negal' mean anyway?"

_Argent:_

"Hey, that's a good question."

_Robin:_

"Yea, what's it mean Star?"

_Starfire:_

"Hell if I am knowing. I merely read the script."

"**And now, something you didn't expect… the Author will now answer all your questions."**

_Saint H:_

"... Natas Dellik I."

"**Any last words?"**

_Raven:_

"Plagiarism is a waste of space." Raven smirks slightly.

_Beast Boy and Tara:_

"Buy us when we come out on DVD!" The changeling smirks.

Tara giggles, "Yea, and to hell with Ice Age!"

_Kid Flash and Jinx:_

The two wave from their position on top of one another.

_Robin:_

"Bruce Lee owns your soul."

_Slade:_

"Cogito ergo sum… bitches."

_Rose:_

"Ah! I'm missing Hello Kitty!"

_Hotspot:_

"Na, na na na! Can't touch this!"

_Killowat:_

"Thanks for reading, and remember. I'm the best Titan."

_Herald:_

"Heh... I LOVE BOYS!"

_Argent:_

"This story was the grossest thing I have ever done. I would have rather slurped rancid tuna salad out of Control Freaks pits."

_Pantha:_

"HAH! You tell 'em girl!"

_Argent:_

With a crooked smile she continues, "Or scoured my own boobies off with a rusty SOS pad."

_Aqualad:_

"Well, the story's over. Now, I'm a busy Atlantean and have things to do, so I can't be bothered by bunches of stalkers and fans after teh show... but if you're a hot young lady I have a question for you." Aqualad leans in close to the camera. "Ever had an orgasm?"

_Kapulit Boys:_

"Hello my friend we meet again!" sings the thug with the shotgun.

"It's been a while where do we begin?" sings Kapulit.

"GET UP! YOUR ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!" sing a random thug.

Kapulit stares, "Dumbass! We were singing Creed not Bloodhound Gang!"

_Tara's Foster Parents:_

"Hot damn! I'm gonna have green, pointy eared grand-babies!" the large woman celebrated.

The man puts his arm calmingly over his wife's shoulder, "Bye everybody."

_Jericho:_

"…" he holds up his index and middle finger with a smile.

_Starfire:_

"I give to you the goodness of bye!" Starfire smiles sweetly.

Superboy zooms in from off screen, "Read my story!" he zooms off screen again.

Starfire stares for a moment, then giggles.

_Cyborg:_

"Well… it's over. Get outta here. NO! I know you love it but you must leave. Seriously, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here." Cyborg looks at the screen sternly.

He breaks down, "WAH! Don't leave me!" he lunges forward and hugs the screen.

And then it turns black.

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_Thanks for reading… and an extra thanks to those that reviewed. In particular Artemis 85, beanrox, Nightlark, and especially Meiriona and Aura Black Chan for reviewing nearly every chapter._

_Special Thanks To: Post, for making me obsessed with a character I was already amazed by. Also, by allowing me to use variations of the term 'Silence is Crimson' in this story._

_RaidersRule76, because, lets face it. He's a badass, and his stories rule mine.  
_

_Also Triforce90 and Jericho of Gilead… they didn't review this religiously but they are constantly reading my work and being supportive… so they get a spot here too._

_To anyone and everyone who has read or reviewed, I thank you deeply. It's not easy to write without feedback, but I didn't have to worry about that because of you._

_The story's over… seriously this is it. But hey, there's always Supe- well, you know._

_Look At All The Love We've Found,  
Saint H_

_Good Night._


End file.
